I forgot to mention that this story is sanitized for T Rating. It's no secret that I'm a smut enthusiast. If you want the lemons (one of which already exists in Chapter 1) you'll need to read this story on A03.

None of this fic could be accomplished without Dilletantism. I am so incredibly grateful for them.

Cumulus and Nimbus

Chapter 3

When Kya was five years old, she asked for her own alarm clock. She'd figured out on her own how to adjust the settings so that she could wake up to the sound of ocean waves in the time when she and her mother lived deep in the icy tundra. She'd pretend they lived somewhere warm and tropical, where she could leave her window open and have the high morning tide greet her.

She still used the ocean alarm setting, but now the young girl awoke with uncharacteristic giddiness knowing that their new condo really was somewhere warmer, with a fantastic view of the bay. If there was time in between school, gouache studies, piano rehearsals, decathlon training, and gym, perhaps they could go to the beach, she considered hopefully. She'd always wanted to make a sandcastle.

Katara was dressed for a day of unpacking—the idea of unfinished boxes once she started work filled her with anxiety. She found Kya already waiting, her legs dangling from a high bar chair in the kitchen. The child pushed a steaming mug of coffee towards her mother without looking up from a music sheet she was studying. Katara beamed.

"Thank you, sweetie. Have you had breakfast? Can I make you something? Are you sure you aren't going to be cold in that?" Katara appraised the six-year-old, who wore simple leggings under a plain short-sleeved uniform dress. Her hair was still loose.

"Yes, no thank you, and no. It's supposed to be quite warm today."

Katara made no response, but came to stand beside her daughter, removing her own hair tie and settling it on her wrist. She combed through Kya's long hair, worrying it with practiced fingers. The child tensed as Katara began the tight twists of a single braid. It was usually too taut and made her head ache by the end of the day—but she also appreciated how the pain of the pulled hair alerted her to when she found herself looking down at her feet. The discomfort reminded her impossibly old soul to always carry herself with confidence and set her jaw towards the horizon.

"Five mantras. Go." Katara said playfully.

Setting down the music sheet, Kya rehearsed, "The only time you fail is if you fall down and stay down."

"Very true." Katara agreed. "We always get back up, no matter how many times life trips us."

"If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door." Kya continued.

"—and this is especially important when it comes to school. Why?" the mother challenged. Kya winced as the braid tightened.

"Because what I learn is my responsibility and the teachers are only there to assist."

"Correct. Three more."

Kya sighed softly, her waggling feet the only betrayal of her wracked brain. "Hard work keeps wrinkles out of the mind and spirit."

"Hard work is the bedrock of a happy life." Katara rewarded back, now pulling a bobby pin from her own loosening braid and working it into the base of Kya's hair where the style would tuck up and under the sheer twists.

"Be open, yet skeptical of everything."

"Agreed." Katara said once more. "We should never close ourselves off to opportunities, but we should also be wary of those who promise it."

"If you want happiness to come into your life, you must stand where the light is shining."

Katara completed the rigid plait and smoothed the fly-aways with loving hands. "That's an interesting one" she mused. "I'm not sure I agree with allowing external forces to dictate one's happiness…"

The child began to bite her nails. "I'm not sure that's what it means, mom. I was thinking like…if something makes you happy you should pursue it."

"Hmm. This sounds like a good dinner conversation. I'll think about that today." Katara demurred.

Katara and Kya were early and in the school's office just as it opened. As a newly minted first grader, the young virtuoso was now a student of Ms. Ty Lee. She didn't know it yet, but the learning coordinator's fluid, yet precise methods would challenge the girl in more than one way.

Katara stooped down and embraced her daughter tightly. Pulling back, she met her eyes with exactitude. "I love you. I'm proud of you. I'll be here to pick you up right on time." These were the things she needed her closest family to know, to never doubt. Come what may, Katara was resolved to ensure that Kya would never feel abandoned or alone.

-0-0-0-

By the end of the week, Katara found herself repeatedly referring to some of her six-year-old's morning mantras. "The only time you fail is if you fall and don't get back up." On her first tour around with the group secretary, On Ji, she'd come to find her office was already poached by the Environmental Chair. She tried to rise above it, chewing her tongue in repressed irritation.

"Oh, don't worry—you'll just get the one he left behind, which actually has windows!" On Ji tried to assuage.

"It's a bit…ostentatious" Katara had murmured when the secretary presented it to her. "But I suppose that's better than being given a broom cupboard. Thanks."

She hadn't unpacked anything before being visited by Sokka and Suki. Her sister-in-law and close friend came with a "welcome aboard" office plant and perhaps the biggest breakfast muffin she'd ever seen.

Her brother came with a gargantuan "welcome aboard" planning book and perhaps the most illegible notes ever written. "Here's the conservation fair. Good luck."

Katara took a steadying breath and grasped for another mantra, "hard work keeps wrinkles out of the mind and spirit…or something." It failed to assuage her annoyance. "Who even writes anymore?" Katara groaned. Why weren't these typed? This is a disaster."

Sokka shrugged. "If you don't think you can handle it…"

"It's fine. I'll figure it out." she shot back with a glare. It would be the greatest conservation fair the city had ever seen, if for no other reason than to spite the chicken-scratching environmental chair.

She attempted to settle in, mulling over planning schedules and logging meeting times as Sokka and Suki walked her through the daily minutiae of City Hall. All the while, she quipped on text to Bumi's father as they argued out a system for the new Beifong Buddies.

A: Sorry, mornings are a no-go for us. Not only do we commute from the island, Bumi is kind of like a corpse before 8 AM.

K: That doesn't seem like a problem coffee wouldn't fix.

A: Caffeinating Bumi and unleashing him into the world? I think that would qualify as an act of terrorism.

K: Now that I think about how he behaves-

Katara erased the text, realizing her thoughts were rude. She wasn't sure how the wild child found his way into a private honors institution, but it was unkind to throw accusations…even if Aang did seem suspiciously chummy with the principal.

K: Well, I don't know if it should be on weekends. Kya's schedule is already full for Saturdays as it is.

A: I figured. It must be very stressful for her to be relentlessly groomed to perfecti—

Aang erased the text, smacking his own forehead at the thought. He shouldn't suppose that Kya wasn't perfectly capable of thriving at a gifted institution (emphasis on the perfect). He'd noticed the poor girl had fingernails that were chewed bloody—there was an anxious human somewhere in that overly regulated 1st grader.

A: How about Fridays after school? I hope we can agree that cutting for an early weekend would probably do all of us some good.

Katara contemplated this text for over an hour before responding. As she strode down to check in with Zuko following her morning with Sokka and Suki, she finally parsed a response. Her heels clacked in the empty hall, texting "That might be our best bet until they get the hours done" but she hadn't managed to press send before a hurtling man blindsided her from around the corner.

He caught her before she could clatter off her heels and onto the floor with a curse that would have made her laugh if she also wasn't bracing to hit the stone tile.

"Monkeyfeathers! I'm so sorry. I was not paying attention—" he said it in between a couple embarrassed chuckles before she could straighten and distinguish her attacker.

"YOU." She breathed incredulously, as she came face-to-face with Aang, who was still grasping her shoulders and looming close. He gobbled with an open mouth for a moment, then flashed a sheepish grin.

"Katara…." he said, trying to recover nonchalantly, "what're you doing here?"

"I work here" she responded with a quivering eyebrow. "What are YOU doing here?"

"I MIGHT ACTUALLY KILL YOU." Came a roar from the opposite end of the hall.

Before Aang could respond, he let out a snort of laughter, but it was clear by the staccato echo now rapidly approaching them that Zuko was hot on his heels. Unthinking, Aang seized Katara's hand and ducked them quickly into the maintenance closet.

"What are we doing?" she complained into the dark. Aang was opening his mouth to explain when an enraged Zuko came storming down the hall.

"AANG. GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE, I KNOW IT WAS YOU."

The closet was too tight. In the dark she couldn't see his face but felt him hovering just above her brow by the huff of his breath as he suppressed a laugh. "I put his office in jello." He whispered softly.

"What? What did you put in jello?" she asked incredulously.

She should have stormed out and left him to his fate. But he smelled so good, and the intensity of his nearness gave her the same heated twinge as when he'd penetrated her with his gaze at the school night. In an uncharacteristic bashful haze, she stayed and found herself choking back desperate laughter at his response.

"Katara. Literally his office. Most of the office is in jello."

They heard Zuko pass the closet still ranting out to no one in particular. "…like working with a bunch of children…. every week it's Sokka with balloons, Suki with the ducks, AANG WITH SOME SORT OF FOOD. I'M TRYING TO RUN A CITY, THIS IS RIDICULOUS."

Katara let out another snort of laughter and as Aang quickly leaned in to cover her mouth, the contact of their bodies lit something. It was electricity in the air grounding itself at the connection and they both felt it. Aang's breath faltered inconspicuously, and he drew back as fast as he'd touched her.

"Sorry" he breathed.

Katara felt the heat of her flushed face as she ducked backwards, tripping into a mop bucket, sending a bundle of glider mops and brooms clattering and bursting open the door. They stood dumbfounded and embarrassed upon discovery—an irate mayor and a deeply confused Sokka paused in the hallway.

"Oogies." Was all her brother could manage.

-0-0-0-

They were still laughing about it when they met at the park next to school. "I'm really….realllly sorry." He entreated through a wheeze. "I did not know Sokka was your brother. OR that he's still apparently an immature teenager who jumps to conclusions."

"Wow. That's rich coming from an elected official who still plays office pranks." Katara quipped as she watched their kids settle in at a park bench. The two were already starting to squabble over something, but somehow, she knew instinctively that both she and Aang would agree to wait and see if they would work it out among themselves.

He grinned that lopsided grin again. "And you're telling me you're not going to prank Sokka? I find that hard to believe."

"Oh, I'm obviously going to prank Sokka as often as possible. I specialize in water balloon traps." Katara's deadpan reply had Aang grinning from ear-to-ear and for one wild moment, she thought about what else she could possibly say. Anything to keep that smile on his face—but it was gone almost as quick as he'd flashed it.

Aang cleared his throat. Katara was witty and surprisingly at ease now that her barrier was lowered a bit. Her profile left him enamored as she looked out at Bumi and Kya, who had already abandoned whatever they were working on and were making their way towards the playground. He thought about remarking on it. He thought about saying something flirtatious. He thought about how much he wanted to stroke some of her wind-tousled hair behind her ear. Something deep inside him resisted.

"This is nice. For them, I mean. The hours really get away from me sometimes as a single parent. It's never been easy to get Kya out with other kids"' Katara supplied, hoping he'd take the bait.

Aang uncrossed his arms and jerked his head, beckoning her to join him on the bench. "I've been there. It's been just me and Bum for a long time now. I'm not looking to change that dynamic." The statement was gentle yet pointed. "It took me a long time to figure out what that means, but someone very wise told me once 'If you want happiness to come into your life, you must stand where the light is shining.' That idea led us here, into this friend group. It looks like it led you here, too."

Katara provided a grateful smile, struggling with how to respond. She thought guiltily of Kya, who had given up the idea of this mantra with little prompting several days ago. She wondered at the warmth she felt, sitting next to Aang and marveled at the sight of her daughter chasing Bumi through the playground. She racked her brain for a memory of Kya at play and came up wanting.

This was already more than she'd hoped for in moving here.

Aang offered friendship.

This was enough.