Tenya
I managed to get something small to eat that just barely took the edge off the hunger pains and a chance to take care of the call of nature before I was forced back to bed by a concerned Pema. A glass of cold litchi Juice placed on the bedside cabinet and bedpan removed, now that I had demonstrated my mobility.
Pema had been cagey about the details of my recent coma, as if she were walking on eggshells. It was rather frustrating when I clearly needed to establish how long I had been incapacitated and receive an update on the goings on in my absence. Four days had been both a shock and a relief while also adding somewhat to my confusion. I had seen in my second life how in just a few days a feeding tube would be applied to patents… through the stomach, the fact I did not have a hole in my stomach was a relief. As it turns out a talented Waterbender could simply bend room temperature soup down the throat of a coma patient. Pema had enlightened me as to the identity of the talented Waterbender.
Considering that I felt no discomfort at all Korra had done a fine job. It did show good character for her to perform professionally in the interests of a patent she disliked. She had tempered her no doubt considerable… distaste of me after I had highlighted her personality flaws and terminated our contract. It was a rather impressive step up from pushing someone off a train platform. After all I had been in her care, bend the water the wrong way and I would die of pneumonia in short order. No one would ever know, she was the Avatar after all.
I blinked and suddenly the sun was shining through the window, high in the sky. It seemed that despite how much I had been sleeping I still needed yet more rest. I pushed the cover off myself feeling rather silly at how heavy it felt before reaching over for my glass of now room temperature juice. I almost groaned at how pleasant it felt to fill my belly with something even if it was less than solid.
The door slid open and I turned to regard Korra who looked to be carrying a water bladder with a medical insignia on it. She stared at me for a moment dumbstruck.
"Good morning, Korra." I said politely, my voice seeming to shatter her momentary mental hiccup.
"Tenya! You're awake!" She exclaimed with a surprisingly satisfied expression, likely impressed with her own nursing ability, she did take great pride in her medical education at the hands of my grandmother.
"So it would seem. I understand that you have done the lion-turtle's share of the work of tending to me these last few days. I would like to thank you." Her face lit up and she started playing with her hair. Given her life thus far a heightened reaction to praise and reinforcement was not a shock in the slightest.
"Pema did a ton too."
"Regardless, thank you Korra." She seemed to collect herself with that and made her way over to me, turning her left hand at the wrist and drawing the water inside the bladder to rip apart the material and shift about in the air.
"Uh, do you mind if I check your back?" I nodded and unbuttoned the bedclothes top before turning away from Korra. I felt the sterile water play over my back and felt some tugging and a terrible itch. "Can you make a fist? And unclench it... keep doing that for a while please." Her tone was pleasantly professional, now and then she had bragged about her training but it was quite another thing to watch it in action.
I could feel the cool water shift from place to place along with the warm pressure of Korra intertwining her chi with the element between us. I suppressed the instinct to resist, as one would resist the chi infused fire in a battle with a firebender. An instinct that made more potent benders more resistant to the attacks of peers.
"It's healing nicely." Korra assured me. "It's just a case of lightly exercising the affected area and letting your body do the rest of the work. I would recommend against straining the muscles or tendons on your back or lifting anything too heavy." An excellent outcome I would say.
"Tenya." Korra paused, clearly thinking as the medical water orbited her in a lazy circle.
"Yes?" I prompted, sending Korra out of her musings, a decision made her expression was steeled as she looked me in the eyes.
"I'm sorry for what I said. And for not trusting you with the... what happened."
"Thank you for the apology, Korra, it is very mature of you." I reached over to drink some of the lukewarm juice on the bedside cabinet. There was a moment of awkward silence as Korra seemed to digest my acceptance of her apology and a rather guilty look spread across her face, her mouth opened but rather than speak it seemed like she was working though what she wanted to say.
Honestly, I was rather impressed with her.
"So, uh... can we, get back to how we used to be? With my training?" I continued to drink my juice before setting the glass down and meeting Korra's gaze.
"No."
"But I apologised!"
"And I do appreciate that Korra but I chose not to train you for a reason."
"How am I meant to be the Avatar if I can't airbend?"
"Being able to airbend or not is irrelevant in the short term, you have fundamental gaps in your education." I pushed the covers off myself and got to my feet.
"You have to stay in bed." Korra spoke reflexively but I waved her off as I stretched my legs.
"Come with me." I said simply and walked out of the room with a confused and seemingly frustrated Korra in tow. "You have demonstrated a capacity to airbend and while training that capacity is responsible what is far more vital is your capacity to understand the environment around you, politics most critically." As early as it was very few people were active in the main building. Not a situation that would last for long.
I reached the sliding door to my room and opened it before slipping inside followed by Korra. I wasted no time on resting my legs by sitting on my bed with an involuntary sigh. I turned to the Avatar and beheld a kicked puppy, she must be going all out to restrain herself after I had refused to train her out of hand.
"The bookcase next to my desk, you can see the shelf that is about head hight for you? Bring the books over here please." Korra turned and reached out for the first book on the left, plucked it from the shelf and looked down at it.
I winced as my book hit the floor with a thud, Korra looking at the text like she had just been burned for it. The title up facing for all to see. The Fire Nation's Burden by Firelord Sozin.
"Don't damage my books, Korra." I chided.
"Why do you have a book written by Sozin?" she asked dumbfounded.
"Sozin was an excellent statesman and wrote in detail about his methodology of controlling elements of the Fire Nation as well as his propaganda efforts used for the continued one hundred years war."
"How can you read something from that evil man?"
"Understanding the reasoning behind why people believe what they do is vital, Korra, you will play a mediating role as the Avatar. You must learn to entertain an idea without adopting it, but overall that book won't serve our purposes all that well. Bring the books over please." Korra winced and knelt to collect the book she had carelessly dropped onto the floor before piling up more of them from the shelf, wincing more and more as she passed over some of them before she gave up on reading the titles and just carried them over to me.
"I won't train you in airbending, you have Tenzin and Jinora for that, both are highly talented and more than capable so long as you are patient with them. I will, however, help you study to make you a better Avatar." I picked up one of the books and looked at the title. Korra looked over my shoulder and managed to look rather sour at my first edition copy of Ozai's Our Collective State. I would have to avoid letting her see some of Iroh, the dragon of the west's early works, that man wrote the closest thing to the art of war I had found.
"I have to read a bunch of huge books?" Korra said with a groan. "I hated doing that at the south pole."
"No, just reading them won't help you unless you enjoy reading them. To study a text effectively we will go over parts of a book together otherwise it will just be a chore for you and you won't learn anything." I reached into the pile and slid out one of the more dog-eared books. Tenzin was far less kind to his books than most people expected.
"Here we go, this is the book we will be starting with. I will outline some sections we can go over. It is likely the most relevant text possible in relation to Republic city and how it works." I handed the book to Korra who looked at the cover with a frown.
"Uhhh 'Oh Our New Republic' by… wait Sokka! I never knew he wrote a book." Korra said, suddenly interested in the sizeable tome.
"Several of them in fact." I let my eyes play over my collection with a smile. I had always loved reading despite the changes over the course of my lives. "People consider Aang first and foremost when they think about Republic City, but there were a lot of people involved in the United Republic, an argument could be made that the United Republic was more the project of Sokka and Firelord Zuko even if neither achieved exactly what they wanted."
"What do you mean?" I glanced over at Korra before turning to look out my window at the expansive city across the shimmering water, lit aflame by the stark first light of the day.
"Well, there are lots of things you must compromise on in any society and pretty much everyone involved in the founding of the city were idealists. Many people are just not going to abide by ideals, they need real systems that can be interacted with, tested, bent, and abused without breaking." I licked my lips to wet them, my throat somewhat sore from not speaking for days.
"I don't really understand." Korra said.
"Sokka wanted to experiment with democracy, test it, and see how far it could go. Not a surprise since he did come from the Southern Water Tribe, you do have a democratic tradition in the election of both local and national Chiefs." Korra's eyes lit up at that mention.
"Oh yeah, my dad's the Chief of the Southern Water Tribe now! It's great, he worked super hard for it too." The fact his daughter was the Avatar had nothing to do with his success I'm sure.
"So Sokka wanted to establish a President, except Aang was still concerned at even establishing the United Republic as an independent nation state. He wanted every nation to have a stake in the United Republic and its success so he established the council with each nation getting a representative, there was some conflict between the northern and southern water tribes about who would have the right to send a representative so Aang let them both send one, something Sokka was very vocal in his opposition to. Sokka's ideas for a President were seen as giving an untested national entity too much independence so they were delayed. Overtime Aang changed his mind and began the process of establishing the office and its powers with Sokka. It's complicated and changed a lot over the years but basically the role would be a counterweight and veto to the Council and have more local powers as well as direct control of the military. The Earth Queen was crowned after her father's death and established a permanent veto for the role of President using the Earth Kingdom seat on the council bringing the establishment of a President to an end."
"What, that's it?"
"What do you mean?" I asked the stunned Avatar.
"So, the Earth Queen just said no even when Aang and Sokka wanted to do something? That's totally dumb! Who is she to say Republic City can't have a President!?"
"Aang and Sokka both passed away and any real political pressure for the establishment of the position faded."
"What about Tenzin!?"
"Tenzin is just one man, not the entire council. He would have to convince the council to give up a lot of the power they hold and somehow convince the Earth Kingdom representative to vote for it despite knowing they would be replaced immediately. There was just no real way-"
"That is so frustrating, someone needs to do something!" I smiled at Korra as she began to pace around the room.
"You had no idea there were even plans for a President and now you are mad about it?" I pointed out.
"Well, if Aang and Sokka wanted a President then it must be a good idea and Republic City is totally out of whack so we have to do something!"
"Do something." I repeated as Korra continued to shuffle about, she had a rather serious look about her and a cupped chin and everything.
"Yeah, someone who would know what the city needs and have the power to just… do it." Korra asserted, rather proud of herself. I would try to be as charitable to her position even if her conception of a President seems to closely resemble a monarch or a dictator.
"Democracy does not solve problems Korra, it's a tool, one that requires constant effort and attention to be effective. It is the people who are placed into positions of power by democracy that are in a position to solve problems."
"That's what I'm saying." Korra claimed with a smile. "We just need to get the right President."
"How are you going to find the right president?"
"You can do it." I blinked.
"What?" She can't be serious.
"We can just make you President. You know all the books on politics, you always know what to do and stuff. So you can beat the Equalists and then help the homeless people and then show people that benders and non-benders shouldn't hate each other." Is she serious? What has the White Lotus done to this poor girl?
"Even if I could even remotely begin to do… all that, you are forgetting the point of Democracy, elections. People would have to vote for the President they want, you can't just assign a president like a king." Or a dictator.
"Well, everyone has a radio these days, we can just tell everyone how great you are then they are bound to vote for you." It was a good sign she identified the power mass media had, it was clear Korra's virtues were wasted on whatever the white lotus considered an appropriate curriculum rather than being non-existent.
"What if Amon won the election?"
"Amon can't be President, who would even vote for that lunatic?!"
"He can't run?" I asked, it was starting to get easier to lead Korra into thinking about things.
"Of course not."
"Why not?"
"He's the bad guy."
"Not to the Equalists, nor the people who support them. If your only argument for why Amon cannot gain political office is that you don't like him then I'm sorry Korra that is just not good enough."
"It's not about me liking him! He hates benders and kidnapped people he tried to kill you! Seems like bad guy stuff to me!" I nodded with a smile.
"Ah, now we are getting somewhere. Amon is an extremist who is known to have committed crimes in the past so his participation in the election could put part of the population at risk, that might well be grounds for preventing him." Korra seemed to catch on that I was trying to teach her something and put her hands on her hips looking annoyed.
"So, I was right, he is a bad guy so he can't be President." Oh for…
"No, listen Korra, when you do something, you need a justification for it, but more than that you need to be able to explain that justification in a way that gives you legitimacy. If you contested Amon's right to enter an election for President, you would need to explain to the public why you were doing that. That is the most important thing to take away from this Korra, you need to be able to justify your actions."
"I do that anyway, I don't just do something for no reason."
"But can you explain to other people what you are doing and why?" She pursed her lips and looked at the floor. "I should have told you why I needed Tenzin the night before the raid, I expected you to just follow my orders but that was not the relationship we had, I should have tried to explain my reasoning to you." Korra looked at me with her brilliant blue eyes before she gave me a genuine smile.
"Thanks Tenya, yeah, I get you now. Ugh, politics and stuff are so dumb."
"You have no idea." I intoned with a smile, engaging Korra was more of an art then a science but conversations like this had a real chance of getting through to her. There was hope for the Avatar yet.
"So what do we do first?" Korra asked with a smile. I leant over my collection and pulled a few books out after some consideration.
"You can put the rest of the books back on my shelf without dropping them first off, then we can get some breakfast. These books are not going anywhere but please feel free to read them in your own time should you get the itch." She scrunched up her face at that prospect and I got back to my feet.
The pain hardly bothered me at this point, I had suffered worse. The moment I hobbled out of my room I quickly felt worse as a tearful girl decided to cling to me.
"Tenya!" Came the shout I processed moments after her rapid assault.
"I-ikki!" I groaned trying to keep my voice level as my little sister suddenly came to reason and darted away from me with a cavalcade of apologies.
"Tenya?" Came another tired voice from behind me. I turned and offered this one a warm smile.
"Jinora, it's good to see you." Before I knew it, she was sniffling in my embrace. "Ah, now now Jinora, no crying, you know it just makes your face red and blotchy…"
Breakfast was somewhat awkward with being embraced by practically everyone who entered the dining room. Even Tenzin was seemingly overcome with emotion clutching me to his body as he put on a brave face. All the while Ikki was telling him off for touching me while I was still recovering. I waved her off and made a point to mention one of the most vital Air Nomad disciplines, grace.
As for Tenzin himself, having one of the few Airbenders alive almost killed had put him under a truly horrific degree of stress. He clearly needed a moment and I had long accepted that instances like this were important to upholding my role as his daughter. I had prodded him for updates as to the goings on in Republic City but like everyone else I was stonewalled with assertions that I did not need to worry about it and should focus on getting better.
The morning meditation gave me an excuse to retreat to the guest room, the room having a bigger and softer bed then the one in my room. I attempted to fall into my routine again but having neglected meditation in favour of tea and chi adjustments before work I was struggling to find my canter.
With an annoyed huff I procured some writing implements and paper and began to write what would resemble a lesson plan for Korra. There was a part of me that was frustrated at the girl still and wanted nothing to do with her but the fact of the matter was that I was going to be dealing with her no matter what. She had shown professionalism in nursing me so I would show professionalism as one of her teachers.
The White Lotus had imparted a great deal of knowledge into the girl, she was well read and had a grasp of mathematics. She was a highly talented martial artist if a poor fighter. She was also very ignorant of higher-level politics, diplomacy and interpersonal matters in general. The cynic in me pointed out that a figurehead enforcer of the white lotus would not need to know such things.
That was unfair honestly, I did not have a deep insight as to the actual intentions of the White Lotus and they had demonstrated loyalty to the Avatar as an institution. But the White Lotus was fundamentally a global institution that had expanded a lot over the past half a century.
I was reading back through the various subjects and concepts I wanted to drill into Korra when the guest room door slowly shuffled open and a little head popped though.
I looked at Meelo as he shifted in place, hugging the door like a blanket and looking like he was ready to burst into tears. I suppressed a sigh and set my work aside for the moment before nodding to him.
He made it all the way to me before he started to tear up. I set his head down on my lap and gave him a chance to calm down. Now and then he felt the need to try to explain what he was feeling or why he was crying but failed to do more then blubber. How he had snuck away from his morning duties without someone looking for him was unclear.
I eventually settled on a need to distract the poor boy. He was clearly consumed by his thoughts and needed to be productive, to feel like he was contributing and being helpful.
"Meelo, Meelo I need your help with something." I ran my fingers through his hair as he sniffed softly and rubbed his eyes.
"Yeah?" He whimpered, trying his best to put on a brave face yet unable to escape the warm comfort of my lap.
"Yeah." I smiled. "You are the only person I can ask too."
"I can help." He assured me, perking up, bright eyes at rapt attention.
"I need you to draw some people for me, and I need it to be as realistic as you can make it okay? Can you get your pencil set?" I could see how confusing the request was but he did not question me, a moment more in my lap was enjoyed before he got to his feet and hurried to his room.
I settled back on my good arm while I waited for Meelo to return, letting myself return to the fight. Phantom pain and tension filled my body as I fell into my recollection of the moment that had almost ended my life for the third time. My heart was racing, everything was in perfect focus, the shocked faces beholding a beaten and bloodied girl before they resolved themselves for a dirty job.
Arms wrapped around me and I flinched back arms pulling up into fists before reason reasserted itself and I understood that I was being held by Meelo, my little brother, my littlest sibling.
"Your pencils." I muttered, my voice uneven. He had discarded the set of them, let them fall to the floor as if they were not worth the time and energy and care he had poured into his beloved drawing implements. The set he spent hours slowly and carefully sharpening with a little knife and a bit of sandpaper, that he had worked so hard for and had been so excited when Pema had gotten it for him at my insistence.
"You looked sad and scared." He said as if nothing else mattered. I embraced him and steeled my expression. The thought that a moment of weakness might have damaged my little brother's property made me feel ill but even expressing that could very well make the problem worse.
"I'm okay." I assured him, looking him in the eyes so he would feel that I was being sincere. He rubbed his eyes and then moved to pick up his pencil set and discarded stack of paper before settling down next to me, as close as he could.
"I need you to draw some faces for me Meelo, I will describe them and you must try to get as close as possible. Does that make sense?" He frowned and I was struck by just how small, how innocent he truly was.
"Sure, I guess…" I began to describe the faces and as always, I was in awe at the truly naturally gifted. The talent that mediocre people like myself would always live in envy of, for Meelo it was like he was born with a pencil in his hand and an eye for colour, shadow and angles. Any moment he was offered a chance to learn how to draw, how to paint, to even play with clay. He absorbed such lessons with aplomb that was well beyond his years.
I described the eyes, facial hair, and shape. Everything I could and Meelo turned my words into people. Slowly, with each stroke of a pencil, with sketches abandoned and discarded, with a slow back and forth. Meelo produced the trio of would-be assassins without ever having set his eyes upon them.
"This is it, thank you Meelo, I knew I could count on you." He smiled up at me, then frowned, then looked down at the pictures.
"They did it." His voice was quiet, uncharacteristically resolved. Of course, he would work it out, I felt my heart skip a beat as I processed his realisation. My mouth felt dry and I had so many things to say but not a single word left my mouth to reach him.
"Meelo." I said at last, my hand on his shoulder.
"I hate them! I wish they would die!" He got to his feet and ran from me. I felt an instinct to follow him, to shout after him, to do something to recover the innocence lost. But my body would not move and my voice was silent. Strength left me and I laid back on the soft floor.
What have I done?
Pema
I am a terrible woman, a terrible mother.
I must be, surely, to take such pleasure in Tenya's moment of need. Since the moment she could walk Tenya had been fiercely independent and clever. She had never needed affection or support and offering them to her seemed to be something she tolerated. To be held to the chest of a loved one is something she did for them and hardly mattered to her own mind or wellbeing.
Even that framing was awful, selfish. I judged her because she was not how I wanted her to be. Because she never needed me and every day made herself indispensable to us all.
"Tenzin." I said, turning to look at the man in question as he disrobed, his bright, stark blue eyes turning to me. "Last night, I felt like…" Like she needed me at last, like I was her mother for the first time. Had I stolen that moment from Tenzin? Had I simply been in the right place to capitalise upon the vulnerability of a teenage girl who had almost been murdered and had awoken alone in the dark?
"When you were speaking to Tenya?" Tenzin prompted without judgement.
"I felt like she needed me." He smiled, happy that I had been there, I did not want to elaborate. I wanted to bask in that smile, to convince myself I had done the right thing, that I was finally the mother Tenya needed and that was that.
But he had nearly lost his little girl, and all I could feel about that was happiness that she had returned a hug, that she had later gone to me for help with Meelo's tantrum.
"I'm a terrible person." I sobbed, shuffling back onto our bed and holding a hand to my swollen belly, feeling some small measure of comfort from the warmth within me. Tenzin was at my side in an instant holding me in his strong arms and whispering sweet things to me and I loved it and I sobbed more.
"You are a wonderful person." Tenzin assured me. "It's just the little one making you a bit emotional at the moment darling." As quickly as the tears had come, I felt a flood of anger and frustration and my blunt dolt of a husband. I scrunched my face up and turned away from him, barely, with how far along I was along, moving to face away from him was painfully awkward.
"It's not the baby! Tenya needed someone and it should have been you. Not me." Tenzin looked at me for a long while as I struggled to keep my cheeks dry.
"If it was going to be anyone, I am glad it was you. She loves you Pema, in her own way." Tenzin paused and looked away. "She just struggles to express herself sometimes. She grew up so fast and always wanted to be the most adult person in the room, I let her do it too, with so much going on it was easy to let her deal with so much alone…"
I felt my heart quicken as the love of my life, with such strength and conviction slipped into a position of vulnerability. I delighted in how as I moved him closer to me, he relaxed into my grip. I shifted in place with delight and confliction as again I beheld my nature. How could I consider myself good when I was at my most delighted, at my most needed when others were unbalanced, vulnerable, exposed.
Quiet soothing words led me into bed with my husband. The delightful closeness he relaxed utterly to my presence and mine to him, feeling him lift and move and shift me with his only desire was to hold me close, carnality paled to the intimate closeness of moments like this. When breathing synchronised and sleep held at bay just to listen to the heartbeat of a soulmate a moment longer. He held me and I held him and my worries, my fear of myself seemed so very far away.
Asami
I eased off the throttle as my boat shifted over the choppy waters surrounding Air Temple Island. Now and then I gave the little engine a squeeze to keep the watercraft moving smoothly into dock as a small crowd waited.
I waved to a serious looking young woman in white and blue robes. A moment later a line was thrown out and I caught it in a smooth motion. There was a general atmosphere of disquiet from the crowd, two groups. A more hostile looking lot in the White and Blue and a more curious if judgemental crowd in yellow and red.
"Welcome to Air Temple Island." The greeting came with an offered hand that I took gladly in climbing onto the high stone dock of the island. I found myself standing before an elderly ethnically Fire Nation man who had seemingly been unbent by age. His skin was paper thin over wiry muscle.
"Thank you, I am here to see Tenya."
"Of course, we have been expecting you, Miss Sato. My name is Qin." He chuckled and seemed to make up for the colder reception of the other onlookers at the docks. "Tenya has woken up thankfully and seems to be well enough for visitors, I will take you to her."
"Thank you. Please call me Asami" I managed before he turned and began to stride up the winding path up the island. I fell into step beside him as a pair of the white and blue robes decided to make themselves my shadow.
"With Tenzin performing his duties on the mainland and our dear Pema somewhat lacking in mobility for the time being, greeting guests falls to acolytes such as myself. I do hope you forgive our limited ability to host guests such as yourself at the moment." The meaning of his words was rather obvious.
"It's very understandable." I quickly retorted. "Considering the situation. Thank you for having me."
"On your left you should see some of the smaller shrines we maintain for people wishing to centre themselves while working along the shoreline or in the gardens." I smiled as Qin settled into something like a tour guide mode while leading me up to the island's main structures.
"You're a super pretty lady." I glanced back as the form of a small boy slipped out from behind a tree.
"Hello there." I replied as the small procession around me stopped. "My name is Asami, what's your name?"
"I'm Meelo and I guess you are pretty enough to go out with my big sister." He punctuated his declaration by crossing his arms and giving me a calculating look as I struggled to find a good reply.
"Tenya is very lucky to have her little brother looking out for her." I ventured, glancing at the other Air Temple residents for help that never came.
"Yeah." He said without much enthusiasm before hopping forward with unnatural agility and landing with scarcely a sound joining the small party on the way up the island.
Tenya carefully considered the board, her bright eyes taking in everything as she carefully considered my last few moves. She was a novice to Pai-sho but took to the rules well enough and had figured out some basic strategies in the practice game we had.
Conversation had been awkward and my gambit of having a game to break the ice had been somewhat successful. It was understandable for her to close in on herself somewhat after the attack but that did not mean I had to like it.
She nodded to herself and placed a piece on the board, she had not worked out my strategy it seemed and had opted to merely progress her own. That simplified things for me in the short term significantly.
"Sorry about the jacket." Tenya said unprompted as I moved a piece.
"Oh, don't worry about it. I'm just glad your okay." Her attention shifted from the board to me, searching my face for something. I gave her the most genuine smile I could until she let out the breath she had been holding.
"I don't want to cause you any trouble with how complicated things are at the moment." She continued.
"Tenya, please don't worry about it, you come with much less baggage than you think." There was another pause.
"I don't want you to feel any obliga-"
"Tenya." I reached forward to take her hand before she could pull it away. "I want to see where this goes, us. I am not letting some dumb equalists get in the way of that." She opened her mouth to speak so I shuffled to my feet and moved around the board that separated her, entwining our fingers all the while.
"I don't want to take advantage of you." Tenya managed to say before I settled in next to her.
"Can I kiss you on the cheek?" I asked, watching her attempt to formulate a response as I simply ignored her needless protests.
"If you want to." Was the best she could come up with, her face taking on a flush as I perked up my lips and lent in. With dramatic flourish I moved until I could slowly breathe out of my nose on her smooth cheek before shifting to her ear.
"What if I want to kiss you on the lips?" I whispered, watching as she tensed.
"I don't mind." She hurried out.
"You're my girlfriend." I asserted, waiting for a reply.
"Yes." Tenya said at last, looking like a jackalope in the headlights.
"So, if I want to?" I asked, waiting for the reply, for her to open her mouth to speak. In an instant her lips were captured and she stiffened. Her mouth closed as I probed and I relented on that front but continued pressing against her soft and full lips. Before the shared sensation could be fully grasped, fully explored I pulled back delighting as she came with me before blushing in embarrassment.
"You need to tell me." I said, trying to keep my voice level and impart the importance to my words that they required. "If it's too much, too quickly." I pushed back a babble and thought carefully about what I wanted to say. "I know I can be intense so you have to tell me if I go too far."
"That is sensible, I promise to be clear about any complaints I have. Currently I find our arrangement to be… pleasant." Came Tenya's baffling reply, I giggled and watched her huff.
I was about to kiss her again when there was a knock against the doorframe, the door sliding open slowly enough that I managed to settle in next to Tenya rather than pressed against her.
"Tenya, Bolin and Mako came around for Pro Bending training and wanted to see how you are." I looked over the three figures in the doorway and suppressed the little fangirl inside of me. The Fire Ferrets, that's where I recognised Bolin from that night. Tenya's friends were the up-and-coming Bending Brothers and the Avatar. So well connected, I would have to tease her about that at some time, see how she reacted.
"Hi Tenya! You are looking great! I mean considering the whole uh, well anyway. It's great to see you, and Asami too! Hi again!" The barrage came from the younger bending brother as it seemed the Avatar and Mako were still taking in my presence.
"Good to see you're okay." Came the more subdued well-wishing of Mako before he gave me a polite nod. "Nice to meet you Asami, I'm Mako, this is my brother Bolin and I think you know Korra."
"I got you some jellied fruits, Tenya!" Bolin said, producing a small box and stepping into the room. "Huh, I had no idea you wore lipstick Tenya, it suits you!" At my side Tenya suddenly reached for her mouth as the Avatar gave me a look that could kill.
Well, I did say I could deal with complicated. I gave the best smile I could and offered a hand to the closest person.
"It's so nice to meet you all!"
Tarrlok
It was time at last, the moon watched as the city slept. Stark and brilliant light illuminated the mountain range and cast my private lodge in a stunning shade that had allowed me to fall in love with the unbearably hot city. Even if it was nothing compared to the rich rolling colours that lit up the sky far to the north it nevertheless took my breath away every time.
A reasonably accurate map of the United Republic was spread over a picnic table, hardened clumps of snow were placed in the corners to keep it from rolling back up as I basked in the bright moonlight. I produced a small vial, oil-stained red from the quickly decaying life giving fluid held within. It was fortunate that the apex of a full moon shone down upon the world so shortly after the attack or my efforts would have been wasted.
They still might be, the art was inconsistent at the best of times even if its power was incredible. Preparing for tonight had taken so much time that I had neglected a visit to Tenya and a great deal of other duties also.
But this was important. I moved a hand to one of the assorted cooking knives I had gathered on such short notice before I drew my power into what little blood had not denatured in the oil. A moment later the small vial I had kept it in shattered and the Equalist blood flowed freely. So little of the fluid had survived, barely any and no doubt shared by more than one person.
That made things complicated if the assassins had split up, ah well no sense worrying unless this had proven to be a waste of time. Under the light of the moon, I allowed myself to fall into a familiar trancelike state, drawing the power freely offered to Waterbenders the world over inwards and outwards. Like the coming of the tide with each wave of strength I felt the world around me grow sharper, more defined, fuller of life. All the while the oily crimson shifted about into the air.
A drop fell and with an awkward motion I stabbed the knife onto the drop of blood cutting a hole in the map. Again and again over the next hour I marked more points on the map where the blood had fallen until there was nothing left and then beheld my work.
Some were clearly failures, scattered scars across Republic City in random locations. It very well could be the location where the rats were hiding but that was unlikely enough as to not be worth investigating.
No what was interesting was the many strikes deep in the undeveloped mountain range north of Republic City, places with no roads, not even dirt paths for miles. The ancient art of blood bending was indeed more of an art then a science but it was worth an investigation at the very least. What did the Equalists' have hidden in the mountains?
With my new Task Force established and Lin's failure to find the Assassins I hoped that I would find more than some small safehouse to present to the people of Republic City. I quickly collected everything from the table and hurried inside to start a fire and make some tea. The cold of the mountain wind was unforgiving at the best of times.