My amazing beta is Dilletantism. Dilletantism has walked me back from ledges, edited my crack-fic ramblings, and altogether saved this story. Thank you, my friend! 3
Chapter 4
"Can you hand me that timer?" Bumi asked without looking up from his project.
Kya leaned over his elbow and into a tacklebox packed full of bits and pieces, tutting in a very Katara-like fashion before extracting a component the size of her pinky nail. She handed it to her "Big Brother" before unceremoniously upturning his box to re-organize.
"Can I ask you a question?"
"You just did." Bumi muttered. Kya rolled her eyes while separating out tiny capacitors.
"Where's your mom?"
She knew the question was a gamble. The fact that Bumi hadn't mentioned seeing his mother in the months since they'd met didn't inspire much hope for a positive answer. Kya wasn't sure exactly why she wanted to know, except that maybe she hoped the boy might be a kindred spirit.
Bumi finally looked up, stretching thoughtfully before returning her gaze. Kya's eyes were a warm blue like her mother's.
"I don't really know. I was just a kid when we left," the 8-year-old responded quietly. "I haven't seen her since we moved to Republic City."
"May I ask why?"
"You just did." Bumi said again, this time with a lopsided grin. "My uh—my dad doesn't like to talk about it too much. I think he just feels guilty or something. I think she didn't like me very much."
He trailed off near the end, and Kya placed a hand on the boy's shoulder, "Bumi…I'm sorry, I didn't mean—"
"'S'okay. I got dad and Appa" he said and seemed to mean it. "But now I get to ask you a question."
Kya closed the tacklebox sharply. "My dad left before I was born, if that's what you're going to ask."
Bumi chewed his lip and regarded her as Kya brought her knees to her chest and fixated on her shoes.
"I guessed that part. I was going to ask why your mom is alone. She seems like a really nice lady."
"Your dad is nice, but he's alone" Kya pointed out.
"My dad goes to the Annual Flower Convention as an "enthusiast" and spends his free time running a fantasy Air Ball league. I KNOW why he's still single" Bumi replied dryly, and Kya had to cover her face to hide her snorts of laughter.
"My Aunt and Uncle try to make her meet people, but mom always gets mad." Kya said with a grin, but it quickly dissolved when she thought of her piano where the dining room table should be.
"She never admits it, but mom is lonely."
"Yeah" Bumi said. "It's like they think we don't see it."
-0-0-0-
"Wow…you look beautiful!"
She knew they were approaching, but the rumble of Aang's voice so near to the back of her neck sent her into gooseflesh. Katara sucked in a silent breath and arranged her features into a friendly smile before meeting his bright eyes.
"Well, you clean up pretty well yourself, Mr. Slacks!" She seized the opportunity to look him up and down as though it were an inspection. Aang's business casual always seemed calculated towards fit.
"Where are the kids?" Katara asked evenly, smoothing at her peplum.
Still sporting an ear-to-ear grin from her attentions, Aang gestured behind him where Bumi and Kya stood with Izumi, bent over some hidden item. The mischief was palpable, but Katara was too busy to investigate, and Aang's free-spirited disinterest won out as per usual.
Katara fidgeted with her hair anxiously as she gazed out at the fairgrounds gate where a steady trickle of attendees already threatened to crowd the event space. She settled back into her vigil, returning once more to her tumultuous stream of consciousness.
"I'm starting to worry about the solar lamps. What if they aren't charged enough? What if we lose the lighting and need to switch to the electric ones? Everyone will call it a "mixed message on conservation."
Aang shook his head in what he hoped was a reassuring fashion. "I don't think so. Cabbage Corp. is serious about their green tech. I don't think they would have risked their reputation sponsoring a city-wide conservation fair with broken lights. We can always call if something goes wrong."
Katara leaned her head against his shoulder and Aang felt his cheeks warming. She was inclined towards physical affection with all her friends.
"What about food waste? I don't know if all the vendors took our request seriously and what if they—"
"Hey." Aang turned Katara towards his chest with a gentle hand. "Everything is great. The fair is amazing, Katara. Look at what you made!"
The overwhelming details of the Conservation Fair were what really pulled everything together , and Katara was nothing if not detail oriented. Even as a newcomer and an unelected member of the staff, she'd managed to somehow enlist the support of every major department.
Katara and her crew had transformed the square seemingly overnight into a World's Fair of green technology thought exchange. Recycled paper lanterns swung lazily in the breeze overhead and the thrum of acoustic music bled through the walkways. People were enjoying themselves—families wandered through the fairgrounds taking in the sights, and children ran in the grass spaces facing the glittering bay. Even the weather seemed to take note, being uncommonly warm for such a pale spring day.
Katara wouldn't have much time to truly sit and appreciate her accomplishments on this night, but his plainly honest enthusiasm would warm her for hours. Aang had a way of being that seemed to affect anyone who fell into his gravity. His endless optimism was so invigorating, Katara found herself seeking his company whenever possible. It seemed ludicrous that she'd only known him for half a school year.
"There's my niece!" came a distant growl accompanied by Kya's squeal of delight as her feet left the ground in a sneak attack.
"Uncle Sokka!"
Lumbering under the awning with a dramatic sigh, Sokka held a giggling Kya on his shoulder. In his other, he grasped a Bumi ankle. The lanky boy's laugh was as carefree as his father's as he allowed himself to be transported like game meat, arms and hair dragging in the dirt.
"Put him down Sokka, you're getting Bumi all dirty!" Katara laughed.
Sokka obliged by lowering the boy down into the grass. Bumi lay there laughing until Katara stooped to help him up. She clucked her tongue.
"See, now he has grass stains…" she muttered, and made a show of dusting him off and attempting (and failing) to smooth some of his wild hair. Bumi dodged her with a move that laughed at gravity.
"Well, I'm going to walk Izumi back to the meeting hall. Mai and Zuko don't want to mingle" Aang apologized.
"Can I go too?" Kya asked, slipping her hand into Aang's before he'd answered.
"Of course. If your mom is okay with it," to which Katara responded with a thumbs up.
"See you after!" Katara called at his retreating back, and Aang acknowledged with a wave and a bounce in his step before sweeping Kya on top of his shoulders and leading the gaggle off towards the main square.
Sokka was a smart man. Sometimes, even with deep investments in traffic studies, land surveys, and spatial investigations, engineering and city planning were botched by the overly analytical mind. Part of what made Sokka so successful was his ability to see people and predict their behavior seemingly at every scale. Now he watched his sister, watched the grooves of comfort she and Aang were already beginning to wear into each other's lives and suppressed a knowing grin. It was like discovering the solution to a problem that was so obvious, he almost thought he heard the blip! of the answer as it popped into his brain.
She was watching her little band of misfits melt into the crowd and wondered at the feeling—a storm of warm thoughts and the physical flutters of affection that came whenever she realized her gratitude for this new life.
"See something you like?" Sokka asked knowingly, and Katara's body jumped at the accusation. She fixed her brother with an exasperated glare. (Blip!)
"You know" she began, "I got enough of that noise when I was still living in Harbor with dad. It's starting to feel a little tone deaf as I keep having to remind all my male relatives that I'm doing just fine on my own. I didn't need dad constantly trying to pair me off, and I don't need you to take up his banner."
Blip! His ears began to twitch. This time the sound really did seem to come from the area around him. Sokka held his hands up defensively and laughed, "I never said anything about pairing you two up, I asked if you like him. A simple no would have sufficed. Hey…are you hearing an annoying little bloopy noise…or is it just me?"
Katara, who had her hands on her hips, chest swelling like an angry bullfrog, responded with acid "oh, I hear an annoying noise alright."
"Suki! Thank the universe! Look, it's my wife, here to save me from my mistakes yet again." Sokka called out as she approached, arm-in-arm with Toph.
"Oh, hey Dr. Beifong!" Katara greeted, stooping down instinctually to pet her dog.
"Is that the Sugar Queen I hear?" Toph asked, playfully turning her ear.
"Sugar Queen?" Katara asked quizzically. That she took the bait made Toph smile wickedly.
"You know…since you're so sweet on Aang."
Katara stood, sighing deeply. "I'm walking away now."
"Okay but SERIOUSLY AM I THE ONLY ONE HEARING THIS BEEPING NOISE!?" Sokka shouted at Katara's retreating backside.
"It's one of the kid's prank timers, Sokka," she laughed, and headed off.
Sokka continued to mutter under his breath as he searched around for the annoyatron that Kya and Bumi had engineered as Toph cut in, "So I was just asking Suki when you two are going to send me a child to torture." The principal rubbed her hands together as though expecting the couple to produce one out of thin air.
"Why would we do that" Sokka asked, finally shaking the small timer loose from his inside coat pocket, "when children are constantly pulling shenanigans like this?"
The crude device no bigger than his thumb nail blipped accusingly.
"Oh, that's easy. I can beat that out of them" Toph joked dryly. Suki gave a dramatized gasp and shoved her gently.
"I don't understand why you're allowed to be around children" Sokka shot back at her.
"Pfff. I'm brilliant, that's why. I paired them up on day 1. Literally." Toph proclaimed, jerking her thumb to reference Katara and Aang, then cackled, "dance my puppets, DANCE!"
Suki attempted to defend her unknowing sister-in-law. "You can't force parents to spend time together then claim that they're in a relationship. You're forcing them to spend practically every day together in that Brother-Sister program."
"Oh, wow. It really did work then." Toph started laughing harder.
Sokka and Suki exchanged confused glances and waited for the roguish educator's crowing to subside.
"Guys" Toph proclaimed, wiping mirthful tears from her eyes, "the Brother-Sister program ended months ago."