Chapter II: Kya's Bending Discovered
"Aang!" Katara called as she walked through the new Air Temple on Air Temple Island, in search of her elusive husband. Really, it was days like this, when both her husband and her daughter were missing that she wished that she'd gotten to know the ends and outs of the island better. Her husband knew the whole island very well, and Kya knew it like the back of her hand. This made her nearly impossible to find during games of hide-and-seek.
But this was no game. Katara hadn't heard from her husband or daughter all morning, and was starting to grow concerned. The island was about as safe as any place could be, but that didn't mean that there were no dangers present.
Scenario after horrible scenario went through Katara's mind: her young daughter falling off a cliff, drowning in the ocean, or being attacked by one of the animals on the island… and other options too horrifying to think about.
"Aang! Where are you?" Katara called, making her way down the main walkway of the Temple and down towards the beach and the docks. She was about to call again when a burst of fire shot into the sky from the direction of the beach, causing Katara to freeze in her tracks.
That fire could have only come from one of two sources: Zuko, who was currently busy in the Fire Nation, or her husband. Knowing that it was the later, she began to hurry down to the beach.
When she got there, she came upon a rather endearing sight. Her husband was shirtless, with his pants rolled up to his knees, and he was splashing lightly in the shallow water of the beach with his daughter.
Still, she was concerned with her daughter being in the ocean, even if she did seem to be content with the shallows for the moment. She picked up her pace. "Aang, are you sure it's okay for her to be playing in the water like that?" Despite the fact that Katara was a Waterbender, she hadn't done much swimming during her childhood. Growing up in the South Pole made swimming down-right deadly. The only swimming that she had learned as a child was enough to be able to get out of the water if she fell in. It wasn't until she started her journey with Aang that she started spending more time in water. She honestly wasn't sure if a three-year old would be able to handle herself in the water.
"She's fine, Katara. A regular little fish, just like her mother!" Aang smiled at his wife.
"Yeah, Momma, I'm a fishie!" Kya laughed, splashing the water at her father, who laughed happily.
"Besides, I won't let anything happen to her. You know that, right, Katara?" Aang gazed at his wife.
Katara sighed. "Yes, I know that, Aang. I'm sorry."
"It's all right." Aang said playfully. "You may have your motherly instincts, but I have my fatherly instincts, and they say she'll be just fine." He gently splashed her back, using subtle Waterbending to make sure that none of it hit his daughter's face. She shrieked at the assault and gave her father a bigger splash in return. It was still barely enough to faze him.
Katara knelt down by the water's edge, Bending a stream of water into loops and spirals with an absentminded movement of her wrist. "She's a confusing one, isn't she?" Katara mused out loud.
"What was that?" Aang asked, returning Kya's little splash attack in kind. Once again, he took extra care not to get any in her face. Instead of returning the attack back at Aang, Kya apparently decided that retreat was the better option. She got to her feet and waded away from her parents a few feet, but still close enough that they could leap to her assistance if she needed it.
"Kya." Katara said. "Sometimes I have a hard time figuring out which element is dominant in her. She looks Water Tribe, but she acts Air Nomad most of the time."
"She's both." Aang said. "That's just how she is."
"But I'm starting to wonder if maybe I was wrong to say that she would be a Waterbender when she was born." Katara mused.
"Well, that's what you get for making assumptions so early." Aang said sagely.
"Says the man who started planning Airbending lessons from the moment he found out his wife was pregnant." Katara commented with a smirk.
"It doesn't hurt to dream." Aang shrugged. "But, seriously, Katara… it doesn't matter what sort of Bender she is… Airbender, Waterbender, or non-Bender. I'll love her just the same, and I know that you will too."
Neither one of them noticed as the small waves lapping at the shore began to get slightly bigger and more frequent and irregular.
"So, you would be excited if Kya turned out to be an Airbender?" Katara asked.
"Of course I'd be excited." Aang said. "But I wouldn't be any less excited if she turned out to be a different sort of Bender."
"But the chance to bring your people back…" Katara began.
"Katara, we talked about this before we got married. If the spirits want the Airbenders to come back, they will give us an Airbending child. If they don't want the Airbenders to return to the world, then they won't. No amount of wishing can force it, so I'm not going to try. What will happen… will happen." Aang said.
Katara smiled at her husband. "Have I ever told you how much I love you?"
"Every day." Aang answered with a smile. "But that doesn't mean that I don't love hearing it every time you say it."
She shuffled into the water towards her husband. "Well, I do. I love you so much." She whispered. They were about to kiss when their daughter's voice interrupted them.
"Dada! Momma! No oogie!" She protested. Aang and Katara pulled apart and looked towards their daughter just in time to see a large wave bearing down on them. Both shocked beyond measure, neither of them thought to take action and the water crashed down on both of them.
It was not a huge wave, but it completely soaked them, and knocked them both on their backs in the water. They sat up, breaking the surface. All at once, Katara began to panic, grabbing her husband's shoulders. "Aang! Kya!" Aang was thinking the same thing as his wife. What if their daughter got caught in that wave? His grey eyes shot around towards where their daughter was, only to find that she was perfectly safe, almost completely dry, and laughing at her parents.
"Splash!" Kya laughed, splashing some more water at her parents, only instead of a little splash like the ones she had thrown at Aang earlier, she created another wave like the one that had crashed down on Aang and Katara. Aang was better prepared for it this time, so he Bent the water away before it crashed down on them.
He felt it, as he was Bending the water away, he could feel the counter-pressure of another person's Bending. When two Benders tried to make the same substance do different things, Bending turned into a battle of wills. Aang could feel someone else's will on the water, but it was undisciplined and light, the shaky control of an untrained child.
Because the control was undisciplined, Aang was able to easily redirect the water away from him and Katara, but both parents stared at their daughter in shock as she laughed, repeating the word "Splash!" over and over.
"Did she just do what I think she did?" Katara asked, her voice barely above a whisper as if talking any louder would ruin the moment.
"I think she did!" Aang replied, just as quietly. He quickly pushed himself to his feet and hurried over to the little girl, scooping her up in his arms. "Did you make that splash, sweetheart?" He asked.
"Splash!" Kya smiled happily.
"Oh, Kya… my precious little Waterbender!" Aang said, giving his daughter a kiss on the top of her head.
"Excuse me!" Katara interrupted loudly.
"Of course, Katara, you will always be my first precious Waterbender…" Aang began to placate his wife.
"That's not what I meant Aang." Katara said, grinning at him and holding out her hand with an expectant look on her face.
Aang stared at her hand, and then met her eyes. With a sigh, he readjusted his hold on Kya so that he could hold her with a single arm and reached into the pocket of his pants. He pulled out several silver pieces and handed them over to his wife.
"I guess you don't regret making your bet on her being a Waterbender now?" Aang asked.
"And I bet that you regret betting against a mother when her child is involved." Katara laughed.
"Ha-ha." Aang laughed flatly. "You'll be the one paying me when the next one is an Airbender!"
LES: For the record, both Aang and Katara will guess Bumi's Bending status wrong (both of them bet on him being a Waterbender). But they will both guess that Tenzin is an Airbender. So Aang never did get Katara back for winning that first bet.