The dust beneath Korra's feet shifts as she moves to take down one of the old boxes on the shelf of the women's dormitory storage room. The floor is grimy, has always been grimy, she supposes, but it has more than likely been exacerbated by the explosions the spirit canon made. Dirt settled everywhere in the city after that, and it isn't easy for the residents to try and clean up, so it's become somewhat of a fixture for the moment. Korra eyes an old trunk-like box sitting on one of the top shelves, and her curiosity gets the better of her. Her tongue pokes out of her mouth in determination as her body stretches to reach the corner of the box and—shit, she thinks. The shelf holding the box gives out as her fingers pull just a little too hard, and the trunk falls to the ground, popping open and scattering dozens of old photographs across the floor. She rushes to peer out of the storage room, and a small sigh of relief escapes her lips as she realizes the halls are empty. She slips back into the storage room and kneels down to collect the fallen photos. As her fingers dust over the front of them, she realizes they're old family photos of Aang and Katara, with what looks to be a child Bumi, a toddler Kya, and a baby Tenzin. Korra rubs her thumb over the dirt that has gathered on the face of the photograph, and a feeling of contentment washes over her. Aang is here, she thinks to herself with a smile, and suddenly she is no longer in the storage room but the den of the house on the island.
The air is crisp and heavy with the morning dew. As Korra looks around, she can see Aang and Katara rushing about and wiping off surfaces. A camera is set up in the corner, and a man who looks strangely like the owner of Cabbage Corp stands next to it while he rolls up an old film reel. She can hear laughter in the background as well as the subtle sound of feet pounding against the stone floor, and for a moment, she is reminded of Ikki and Meelo and the peals of laughter that still fill Air Temple Island whenever the two are left alone together. As she turns, she spots a head of unruly brown hair sticking out in every direction, and it darts quickly to the side after a tiny bundle of blue robes. Bumi is chasing Kya around the table as she squeals in laughter. Behind them, Katara is pulling a tablecloth off a small, round end table before she shoves the table to the middle of the room. Her face is pinched in exasperation.
"Aang!" Katara shouts. "Get your fucking kids!" Korra can't help but laugh. Katara has always had the mouth of a sailor, and according to Kya, she never once tried to quell her cursing around the kids.
"Oh, so when they misbehave, they're my kids," Aang laughs. "You know, darling, you were the one that wanted to go for three." His hands reach out to pull her to his chest, and though she resists, he manages to press a kiss to her forehead before she is pulling away and eyeing him warily.
"Do you want to be right, or do you want to keep being able to airbend?" Her eyes travel up and down his body. "Your choice," she smiles sweetly with a nod.
Aang acquiesces with a firm gulp before turning and gathering Bumi in his arms. "Okay, kiddo, enough of that or your mother will waterbend us both into the bay." To his merit, Bumi stops struggling after only a moment, and Aang ushers him into his room to put on his new shirt. Kya lets out a small "humph" in disappointment before she skips off to play with the reel of film the photographer left on the floor. Korra can't help but smile. It's lovely to see what these people who mean so much to her were like in their youth. She considers them family now and is wholeheartedly delighted to have Aang to share the memories of their past with her. She feels laughter bubble up in her chest, and she can only assume that she is feeling the strong emotions of her predecessor.
A loud crash and a grunted, "Fucking hell," draw her attention to the middle of the room. Toph stands holding a bundle of blankets and hopping on one foot. "Sugar Queen, I thought I told you. Putting wooden objects in the middle of the room isn't fair. This is a home, not an obstacle course." The blanket in her arms shifts, and a tiny hand pops out. "Yeah, yeah, little one. I'm being nice." She groans.
"Sorry, Toph, but I'm a little busy trying not to strangle two kids."
"Can we hurry this up?" A voice from the corner of the room booms. When Korra looks over, she sees the photographer fighting off a tiny Kya, who has decided that the film reel tastes really good. "I don't think I am being paid enough for this to go on much longer." He nudges Kya with his foot, and she scuttles over to the corner where a crib sits untouched. Her hands reach over the side, and she pulls. Hard.
"Kya, no!" Katara nearly shrieks. She rushes over and rips Kya away from the bassinet. She grips her by the arm and bends over to speak to her. "Your brother is in there. Do you really want him to fall out?" Kya shakes her head, looking somewhat chastised. Katara stands straight again and dusts off the skirt of her Water Tribe robes.
"Go on and get the room ready, Sugar Tits. I'll handle the kids." Toph laughs. Katara eyes her strangely. "Don't look at me like that! You look like you're going to pass out, and that camera guy is literally hyperventilating."
"Toph, you hate babysitting. You barely ever want to watch your own kid." The waterbender surmises.
"Hey, I resent that. I like my kid just fine."
"Fine. I don't have fucking time for this anyway. I swear this day was supposed to be easy and quick, and it went to hell the second I woke up." She looks around at the nearly empty room. "Aang, where the hell are you?" She shouts. "It takes two fucking seconds to put a shirt on a child!" She's gone again, whisking away into the other room to gather something for the portrait.
Korra watches as Toph leans forward and snatches Kya by the back of her robes, like a saber tooth moose lion picks up their young by the scruff of their neck. Kya kicks a little, but she is otherwise unable to reach the floor. Toph scoots to the edge of the room and drops her to the floor before sliding her foot out. Two small rock boots shoot up around Kya's legs, and Korra laughs out loud. Leave it to Toph to consider trapping a child in earth a good babysitting technique. Kya lets out a loud, "Hey! That's not fair!" and Toph kicks up a stump of earth to sit on.
"Do I look like I care about fair, Squirt?" Her face is leaning towards Kya's general direction, and her eyes narrow. Kya crosses her arms in defiance as she huffs and sits down. Her feet, still encased in stone, shift under Toph's bending so she isn't actually uncomfortable, just incapacitated.
As Korra looks over Kya, she sees so much of herself in the young child. She doesn't know if it's how Water Tribe children generally are, or if she inherited more of Aang's spirit and personality than she originally thought, but defiance is in her nature. From the looks of it, Kya inherited the same.
"Fucking Spirits, Aang! How did you manage to tear his shirt?" She hears Katara groan from the other room.
"Sorry, sweetie. He wouldn't sit still." Aang shuffles out of the room, his back to the den and his arms raised in defense. He is genuinely scared, and Korra stifles a giggle. The Avatar, returned after 100 years of disappearance, victor of the 100 Year War at only 12 years old, scared of his wife? It's more than a little ironic. "Listen, the nice, yellow shirt will do just fine!"
"I wanted him in blue! He was going to match Kya!" Katara sighs loudly. "Fine, you know what? It doesn't matter anyway." Korra can hear Bumi start to speak up before he is silenced by what she can assume is a shirt being pulled over his head. "Go on, now, Bumi. Get out there." He darts into the room with a grin on his face. He runs like he's escaping something, and his voice rips into the room.
"Freedom!" He shouts. As he turns the corner, he speeds up, going too fast to stop himself from crashing into the wooden table he wasn't expecting to encounter in the middle of the room. It tips over and crashes to the ground. Wood splinters scatter across the floor. He stands quickly and looks around with wide eyes.
"Bumi!" Aang roars, and the young boy cowers. "Go! By your Aunt Toph. Now!" Bumi hangs his head low, but Korra can see the whispers of a grin on his face and the ghost of a smile across Aang's lips. He really can't stay mad at his children, can he? Bumi slouches down next to Kya, sure to shove his shoulder into her side, and she pushes him right back. Aang bends over and picks the table up off the floor and sets it right. With a small wave of his hands, the wooden splinters a forced out of the room with a small gust of wind. He grips the edge of the table and turns it away from the camera. "There, you can't even see it." Toph snorts, and Korra can tell that she just knows Katara will notice.
The waterbender saunters into the room, two pins in her hand as she bends over and moves Kya's hair out of her face. "There," she whispers. "Very nice." She makes her way over to Aang and pushes her face into his chest. "I don't know what happened to that table, but right now I really don't care." She mumbles.
"Ahem," someone coughs, and both Aang and Katara shift to see the photographer looking fairly disheveled and annoyed. "Can we please get moving?"
"We are trying," Katara grumbles. She looks over at Kya, strapped to the ground by earth boots and groans. "Toph, can you please not attach my children to the Earth?" The ground trembles, and the boots sink back into the floor, but Kya is not one to remain calm, and she takes off at a sprint towards the kitchen. Her shouts and laughter fill the room, and Katara's face drops. "Kya, no!" But it's too late, and Katara has to sprint after her only daughter.
Bumi takes this as his chance, and with one defiant look towards his father, he jumps to his feet and rushes through the door that leads outside. His roar of laughter is enough to cause Aang to pinch the bridge of his nose in much the way Korra has seen Tenzin do. A gust of air breezes about the room, and the young boy floats back in on the wind.
"Bumi, stay." Aang commands, and Bumi groans but nods, nonetheless.
Katara rushes back in the room with Kya struggling in her arms. Her eyes meet the young photographer's. "I'm so sorry, Lau. I know your father needs your help today. I just—Kya, be still!" She scolds her daughter, and Kya goes limp in her arms. It's a feat of dramatization that Korra recognizes in the waterbender even today. "I'm sorry," Katara repeats breathlessly. She places Kya upright on the table in the middle of the room and grips her by the back of her dress. Aang pulls Bumi into his side so that he is leaning against the table. He straightens out the vibrant yellow shirt his son wears before looking to the camera man. The man is waiting patiently, but he is not taking the photo. He looks at the family with a raised brow, and Korra can see the moment that realization dawns on Katara's face. "Oh, fuck! We forgot the baby!"
Toph steps forward, the small bundle of red blankets tucked neatly in her arm. "Here, here, don't worry, Sweetness. I've got it." She hands Katara the baby and steps back with a grin on her face.
Katara turns around and heads back to her spot for the photo with a small smile. She steps back into her spot, watching as Toph silently leaves the room. The waterbender looks down and shifts the blanket from the baby's face so the photographer can get a better picture, and it hits her. "Fuck! Toph, this is your baby!"
"Not today, she isn't!" Toph shouts with a laugh, and she cackles as she all but sprints from the home.
From her arms, Lin lets out a tiny giggle and pulls on the braid hanging from Katara's hair. Katara looks at the photographer as she lets out an exasperated smile. Silently, she hopes he will let her trade babies in the basinet, because this is something Toph is known to do, but a burst of light in her face tells her otherwise.
"Alright! I'm packin' up now, lady. Have a great weekend." The photographer shouts, and from the crib, Tenzin starts to wail.
"Fucking Toph…" Katara mutters, but Aang is chuckling deep and low in his belly.
"Don't worry darling, she won't be able to tell the difference."
Korra comes back to herself in the storage room of the women's dormitory on Air Temple Island with a grin on her face. Flipping the photo over, she can see the faded ink on the back: "Bumi, Kya, Lin, 121 AG." The young Avatar feels laughter bubbling in her chest, and she tucks the photo into her pocket to give to Katara later, because she's sure the woman would love the memory. When she finally manages to get the other pictures into the box and place the box back on the shelf, she does so with a smile on her face. From the hall, she hears shouts, and she slides the storage room door open to step into the dimly lit corridor. Meelo has his hands tangled in Ikki's hair, feet on her shoulders as his airbending shuffles Rohan down the hall.
"Meelo!" Ikki shouts. "Get your hands off me, or I'll tell dad it was you who tried to flush a sweet bun down the toilet!"
Korra can only laugh, walking over to pick Meelo out of Ikki's hair. Briefly, she wonders if Tenzin would ever manage to get a family portrait of his own done.