One-shot XIII: Hair

One day at Republic City Air Temple, Aang was talking to one of the air acolytes.

"Excuse me for the question, but... if the boy is an airbender, why he hasn't started to be more rigorous with the traditions?" the man looked for a second at the twins of almost six years old who were playing and laughing "like the look of the hair, the boy wore it very long."

That was true, Tenzin had hair as long as Izumi, slightly below the shoulders. Both were dressed up in the typical Fire Nation royal clothes, even wore their hair tied back.

"It's a long story, I tried it almost a year ago… that of cutting his hair and changing his clothes a little."

Aang recalled that a couple of days after finding out that Tenzin was an airbender, he decided to start teaching him about his culture and traditions. He began by trying to give him airbender clothes, which was not extremely comfortable for the boy, although his robes allowed him to move better. Then he went with something bigger, the hair, he would only cut it to the height of his cheeks, Aang knew that he could feel uncomfortable with a totally shaved head, Tenzin was a bit confused, but he did not complain when he saw the result, he even seemed happy. Nothing seemed to change, the twins still played all day and always went everywhere together; however, some servants were silently grateful for the change that Tenzin had had, they could already differentiate them, and they did not spend all the time making silly jokes pretending to be the other one asking everyone if they differentiated them.

However, one day when the kids were quieter than usual, they locked themselves in their playroom and only went out to see their mother.

"Who is who?" they yelled at the same time in front of Aang, who almost fainted. He could not tell very well who Izumi was and who were Tenzin, both now had the same haircut although one wore the airbender robes, they were the same again.

"Why did they do it?" He shouted almost angrily "why did you cut Izumi's hair?" he looked at who it was wearing it's traditional princely clothes.

"I… I'm Izumi."

"That... I already knew it, you shouldn't have taken the scissors, it's dangerous."

"Sorry" the kids said at the same time.

"We are twins and twins are equal" Tenzin said without raising his gaze.

"They're always equal."

"A haircut or change of clothes will not make you less twins, you have the same face."

"But we like it that way."

"Izumi, you can't do that."

"But when we're older we can't be equal... I'll have long hair and Tenzin won't have hair."

"I propose something to you" Aang said, who came up with an idea after seeing the sad look on the kids face "you can be all equal you want, even the clothes but only until Tenzin gets his airbender tattoos, it's okay?"

The kids nodded energetically and went to cut Izumi's hair properly, they would be equal again.

"That's why I will not cut his hair again, at least not in a few years... she would be unable to shave her head to continue with their jokes" Aang finished telling him, almost disappointed with himself, he turned his gaze to look at the kids who were still playing, sometimes they used their elements.

The man next to him laughed a bit at the curious story, but deep down, Aang was relieved that the discovery of their powers had not separated the kids, it seemed like it had brought them even closer.