((AN: I love writing Aang as a dad; I imagine he'd be the best, as well as a very patient teacher. Regarding one part, I confess that I don't pretend to know everything about the process of meditation, but I think I get the general idea.

I want to thank you all again for your wonderful reviews, faves, and all that. It means a lot to hear from people. ^^ I'm currently dividing my other long and ongoing Avatar fanfic into chapters, so you all may see that for something to read here as well. :3

These guys belong to Mike and Bryan. Worship their awesomeness.))

"You should widen your stance a little more, Tenzin. When it comes to Airbending, proper footwork is important."

Aang watched the boy comply with a wordless nod as he continued his circle around the training pole, his feet pivoting a little more into the correct angle with each step. The Avatar gave a proud smile at his progress; if there was anything he loved out of his life as much as his wife, it was his son, and the opportunity he had to teach him the lost disciplines of his heritage.

At age six, Tenzin was growing swiftly and learning just as much. He always tackled his early-morning exercises with enthusiasm, especially so to be able to spend the time he could with his dad. That warm morning in the courtyard was no exception; Aang took in the scene before him as he sat on the wall and watched the boy go through his drills. With lemurs chasing each other around the dew-soaked trees and Appa keeping an eye on things while munching on hay, for a moment he felt like he went back in time again to when the Temple was full of children his age. But there were only two Airbenders in the world for now, and it felt to him that his son helped to breathe a sense of life and purpose back to their once-destroyed home.

After a few moments passed, Aang pushed himself off the ledge and strode towards the boy, who had finished the drills and awaited the next lesson. "Very good," the older monk smiled. "You're improving."

"Thank you," Tenzin said with a quick bow and a bright smile. "What's next, Daddy?"

"Now, I want to see just what kind of control you have," Aang stated, and then gave him an amused grin. "Your mother tells me you've been trying your hand at air blasts."

At that, Tenzin sheepishly averted his eyes. "Yeah, um…I guess she told you about my room?"

"That it looks like a tornado went through it?" Aang laughed. "Yeah." He reassuringly laid a hand on his head. "But don't worry, son; Airbending takes a little practice. It's easy for a novice to lose control; so it's best to do it outside." He stepped back and gave him a quick nod. "Now, show me what you can do."

At that, Tenzin took a quick breath and assumed a stance that he'd seen his father doing often. With a whirl of his body and a thrust of his hand, he indeed managed to conjure a fierce air blast…but also managed to cause himself to lose his footing and fall backward, propelled a few feet away by his own wind. "Oof!"

Aang rushed to his son's side and knelt down, chuckling. "Are you okay?"

The young Airbender nodded with a frustrated grunt as he sat up again. "Yeah. But I keep falling over when I do that. I wonder if I'll ever get it right."

"You will," Aang said with a soft laugh as he helped him up again. "I was your age and had to learn once. It gets better with enough time and work."

"How much time and work?" Tenzin pouted. "I really wanna be able to do everything you do."

"I know," the Avatar admonished softly as he ruffled his son's hair. "But you don't learn everything just that quickly. Don't get frustrated, okay?"

"Mmkay," the child replied in a small, downcast voice.

Aang gave him a warm smile. "And besides, Airbending takes careful precision; before you can learn any advanced feats, you have to learn how to exercise control." He reached up into his shawl. "I have something for you."

Tenzin blinked his wide gray eyes up to his father. "What is it?"

Smiling, Aang pulled his closed hand out and uncurled his fingers to reveal a few small black marbles. Questioningly, Tenzin tilted his head.

"These marbles are toys for Airbending," Aang explained and pulled back, clasping his other hand over them. "Watch this."

With but a quick motion as he separated his palms, the small orbs were suddenly rotating in a blurry circle in midair between them.

"Wow!" his son exclaimed and clapped. "That's neat!"

Giving him a grin, his father halted the movement of the marbles as they settled into his hands again. "Yeah, I've kept these since I was little. Even tried to impress your mom with them once," he laughed, and then took his son's hand to place the marbles there. "And now they're yours."

"Really?" Tenzin breathed, rolling the little trinkets around in his fingers. "You're giving them to me?"

"Of course," Aang smiled. "You'll need them more than I do. Not only are they fun, but they're good practice for control of the air. If you learn to manipulate small objects like this, it'll soon become much easier to make the wind as powerful or as weak as you need it to be. It'll definitely come in handy when you learn to fly a glider."

"Oh, I can't wait to do that!" the small Airbender grinned as he inspected the marbles again. "So how do these work?"

"All you have to do is try to move them around in different ways without touching them," Aang informed, sitting back. "Pick them up, make them float; and just use tiny gusts of wind. Go ahead, try it."

"Okay…" Tenzin cautiously acquiesced, sitting back as well with the tiny inanimate trinkets cradled carefully. With a quick breath, he let his other hand hover over them and felt the wind under his tiny fingers. With a few circular movements, he managed to make the toys roll as if on their own volition.

Encouraged, he tried to will the air to move faster and faster. But just as he tried to imitate his father's trick, he lost control once more and ended up with one of the marbles shooting up to hit him in the forehead. "OW!" he whimpered.

"Tenzin…" Aang began, reaching out to comfort his son.

Frustrated, the child tossed the marbles to the ground and rubbed his head. "I can't even do that trick!" He blinked a few small tears. "Why can't I get it?"

"Aw, son…" Aang sighed as he pulled Tenzin onto his lap and ran his fingers over the red spot on his brow. "Remember what I said. It takes patience. I know you'll get it eventually."

He sniffed and buried his head in his father's wrist. "What if I don't?"

"You will," the older monk insisted. "Everyone goes through their rough spots. Your mother reacted the same way you did when she started to learn Waterbending. And I had plenty of them when I trained in the other elements."

"Yeah, the other elements," Tenzin sighed. "But I only know Airbending…and you mastered Airbending."

"That doesn't mean that I didn't have to work hard at it every day," Aang informed as he tilted his son's chin up to look at him. "You cannot allow yourself to get disappointed and frustrated. Otherwise you will only keep making mistakes and hate yourself for it. If you keep working, it'll only make you all the happier when you succeed."

Abashed, Tenzin's eyes only closed in reply.

Humming thoughtfully, Aang picked the marbles off of the cobblestones and handed them to his son. "I want you to keep these, and keep practicing. This time you'll know to be gentler at first, so you don't keep getting whacked in the head, like your dear old dad always did," he let out a soft-hearted chuckle.

Tenzin reacted with a small smile and looked once more at the marbles before placing them in his pocket. Satisfied, Aang stood up and picked his son up to seat him on his shoulders. "C'mon, little guy. I wanna show you something."

Curious, Tenzin kept a hold on his father's neck as he was carried out of the courtyard and up the main pathway to the Southern Air Temple. He felt his frustration melting away in the tranquil calm surrounding their mountaintop abode, to be replaced with curiosity as to where he was being taken.

The two stopped as soon as they reached one of the entrances to the temple's interior. Sitting like a steadfast sentry at the door was the meditating statue of a familiar monk, polished and looking as if newly-carved. His sagely visage seemed to regard his former student and son with everlasting patience, exactly as Aang always remembered him.

"Who's that?" Tenzin inquired as he was gently lowered to the ground again.

Aang's gaze focused on the statue, and his voice was soft and tinged with sadness. "That's Monk Gyatso. He was my teacher, long ago. He was a very wise master, and one of the greatest Airbenders. I wouldn't be where I am today without his guidance. Whenever I started to lose faith in myself, it was he who would pick me up again and tell me exactly what I've been telling you."

Tenzin followed his father's eyes to the statue and suddenly felt small. He could never place why, but he always felt a weight of importance when told about his father's old world and the teachings of the past. Though he knew instinctively that this Gyatso had to be someone loving and kind, the child felt unworthy to be looking into the eyes of a master long-revered.

As if reading his thoughts, Aang lightly squeezed his son's hand. "I see a lot of myself in you, Tenzin," he said after a long bout of reverent silence. "When I was young, I was impulsive and pretty rash. I was often too eager to learn not only when I started Airbending, but the other elements as well. I wanted to learn so much, so fast, and I only managed to hurt myself by doing so. Sometimes…I even hurt others." He took a deep breath. "But my mistakes taught me what I needed to know in order to better myself and eventually conquer my challenges."

He turned to meet Tenzin's bright eyes with a reassuring smile. "You have a proud heritage in you, son. Our people were all Airbenders, and very spiritual and connected together. All of them had to learn, and many even had to struggle…but our element is about freedom, and to truly understand it, you have to free yourself from your troubles. If you can do that, and work hard, then I know you'll someday be a Master worthy of the Air Nomads."

Tenzin smiled at the thought and gripped his dad's hand tighter, leaning against his leg as he looked up at the statue again. "…Mama says…that you and me are the only Airbenders in the whole wide world," he observed.

"She's right," Aang nodded slowly. "Our people…" he paused with his breath held; he couldn't yet speak to this young, innocent boy about the devastation that the war had caused. "…They disappeared, a long time ago," he finally breathed out. "Only we can keep the practice of Airbending alive now."

Tenzin hung his head in thought. "Then…I really hope I can get it someday."

Aang smiled and leaned down to pick him up again. "You shouldn't worry so much. You're only six, and you have your whole life ahead of you to master Airbending. And I'm here to help…but I promise I won't make you train more or harder than you need to yourself. I want you to enjoy learning."

"I really do; it's fun being an Airbender," Tenzin grinned as he hugged his father. "I just don't like getting it wrong. Maybe I'm not patient enough," he shrugged.

Looking between his son and the statue once more, Aang turned and started out of the courtyard. "Well, I think I know a way to help with that too," he chuckled. "Why don't you join me in meditation today?"

"Really?" Tenzin tilted his head. "Okay…but how'll that help? It looks kinda like sitting around, to me."

"Trust me," was all Aang answered as they walked along the path to another part of the temple.

A few minutes later, they had found the destination that the Avatar was looking for; a small spot of grass under a shady tree on the sunny side of the mountain. The east wall overlooked the area, and a calming breeze shifted the leaves of the vegetation as the two Airbenders settled themselves into the shade. As well as his father could, Tenzin felt the soothing spiritual energies with each whistle of the wind along the Temple boundary.

"Alright," Aang began as he settled into his lotus position. "Close your eyes and do what I do. Don't talk…just breathe, and focus."

Curious, Tenzin complied and held his fingers over his knees the same way that Aang had done. He took a deep breath and let it out, trying to figure out what he was doing.

"Good…concentrate on breathing first," Aang's soft and patient voice instructed beside him, level and almost lulling. "Through the nose. In and out…deep and slow."

Tenzin complied, but found it a little hard to concentrate on sitting still. He opened one eye to glance around, but found Aang waving a finger in his line of sight and warning him to keep it closed. So breathe he did, carefully and controlled, until it was all he could focus on. I can at least get this right, he thought.

"Clear your mind…and just focus on the air," Aang continued in a whisper, unmoving. "All living things need the air to breathe…air is life, and freedom, and spirit. To understand our element, you have to immerse yourself. You bend it to your will when you breathe, and you let it within you. Feel it. Hear it. Do not force it. Move with it. The air is not patient…so to control it, you must be."

With each word echoing through his mind, Tenzin allowed himself to focus only on the air and what it brought to him. Each inhalation brought cool air to his lungs, and the scent of vegetation and earth trickled into his senses. Each exhalation loosened him and let his apprehensions float away so he that he was ever the more attentive to the element each time.

"Now…" Aang spoke again after a few moments, "Listen all around you to what the air does. Get a feel for how it moves. Understand it. Respect it."

Tenzin took another breath and opened his sense of hearing to the world, eyes still closed. He could feel the breeze trickling over their spot on the mountain and rustling his hair and clothes. It whistled in his ear and flowed unhindered through the leaves above their heads. And he even felt, to his slight surprise, how the wind halted and left the air stifled and still…like it was thinking of which direction to go next. And sure enough, he heard the very top of the tree rustling, yet felt no wind. He surmised that it was blowing from behind the temple wall and downward again.

"Air is stubborn, but thoughtful," Aang continued, as if feeling his son's observational thoughts. "It rushes and it doesn't stop, but tries to flow around every obstacle and finds a way to go where it wishes. Few things stop it from going. Its nature is to fly. It is free, and so are we. Search yourself, and know this fact."

Through the silence that followed, Tenzin kept his thoughts on nothing but the wind. In the small idiosyncrasies of the world outside of his blackened vision, he could even pick up minute changes in sound and feeling. He heard his own father's breathing, heavier and more controlled. Throughout the contemplative moments of inner searching, the child found his peace with the impatience of the air and knew what he had to accomplish to balance his patience to match it.

"And, one last deep breath," Aang directed once the meditation had drawn to a close. As the Airbenders opened their eyes again, the Avatar sent a warm grin to his son. "How do you feel now?"

Tenzin blinked a few times, fascinated. His own energy, almost downright unending at times, had trickled to manageable levels. "Much better," he confirmed with a grin right back.

Aang nodded. "Thought so. Meditation was an important part of the Air Nomads' discipline. It allowed us to be in touch with our spirituality and to better understand our element. It also keeps you calm and your mind free of distraction."

"That's pretty cool," Tenzin giggled. "Now I know why you do that a lot."

"Yep," his father chuckled, before regarding him with seriousness again. "I would like you to make meditation a habit as well, Tenzin. At least once a day, whenever you wish to, or whenever you want to clear your mind for some reason or another. I believe it will help you find your patience in your training and to better center yourself."

The child nodded. "Okay, Daddy…I'll try. Can I meditate with you again tomorrow?"

"I don't see why not," Aang smiled as he stood and stretched, with Tenzin following suit. "Anyway, I believe that's it for this morning. What do you say we go see what we can dig up for lunch?"

At the mention of food, a loud growl erupted from Tenzin's stomach. He blushed and put on a sheepish, toothy grin that very much mirrored his father's. "Yeah, I'm starving!"

"I believe your gut said that better than you," Aang snorted as he attacked his son's ticklish ribs and made him bleat loudly with mirthful laughter. In retaliation, Tenzin pounced him and had them playfully rolling in the grass.

After a moment to regain their composure, Aang took his hand and led him back up the stairway to the main path to the Temple.

Tenzin hummed as they made their way to the towers marking the living quarters, looking at the blue mark that creased the back of the hand he held. "Daddy?"

"Hm?"

"When I become a Master, will I get arrows too?"

The older Airbender smiled. "Yep...at least I'd like for you to. It was a tradition to give arrows to Airbenders when they reached the 36th level and invented a new move, like I did with the Air Scooter. That's how you know you're a Master."

"Neat," Tenzin giggled as he curiously touched the line of blue on Aang's wrist. "Um, do I also have to shave my head?"

Aang laughed. "That, I'll leave up to you. I know your mother's fond of your hair and you might be too. The monks though, they shaved their heads as part of the need to rid themselves of physical worries such as vanity. Plus, it made it easier to fly without it going all over your face."

"Ohh," Tenzin laughed and self-consciously plucked at his brown-black strands. "I'll think about that one."

As they approached the temple, the smell of food could instantly be picked up, and this time, both of their stomachs growled. "You think if I ask, Mama might make her stewed sea prunes?" Tenzin inquired with a wide grin.

Aang barked a laugh. "Ugh! You actually like that stuff?"

"Yeah!" he exclaimed. "They're all chewy and mushy and make your tongue tingle. What, don't you?"

His father stuck out his tongue. "Well, let me just say I never did get used to some Water Tribe dishes."

"Heh, I like all dishes," Tenzin smiled. "I just hope it's not papayas again."

At that, Aang let out another laugh and rolled his eyes. I see myself in our son, Katara, but that's sneaky of you to give him your impatience AND your taste buds.