Chapter Text
Tenzin was almost late for the ferry to head into the city for another day with the council advising Raiko when he realized he forgot his notes on the new policy in his study. "IKKI!" he called seeing his daughter dart between rooms down the hall. "Would you mind grabbing the manilla folder on the right side of my desk? I am almost late, and I already have my shoes on. Thanks, Sweetie!"
"On it, Daddy!" Ikki replied racing down the hall to her father's study. She spotted the folder immediately, but when she picked it up, something caught her eye. It was a black and white photo of a family. Or at least it looked like a family. It looked like there was a mommy and a daddy, and two boys and a girl standing in front of them and a toddler in the daddy's arms and a baby in the mommy's arms. Ikki glanced a bit closer at the photo long enough to recognize her dad holding the toddler, but not anyone else.
"IKKI!" Tenzin called.
"Coming!" Ikki yelled. She shoved the photo into her robes without a second thought and ran back down the hallway. "Here you go, Daddy!" she said handing him the folder.
"Thanks, Sweetie, I'll see you this evening. Don't forget to meditate with all of the other airbenders," Tenzin replied kissing her head, taking the folder.
"I won't!" Ikki said anxious for him to go so she could be free to examine the photo.
She watched him go down to the docks and waited until he was already on the ferry before going to find her sister who happened to be in a sitting room with Opal reading.
"JINORA!" Ikki screamed practically sprinting into the room.
"What now, Ikki?!" Jinora groaned with an air of annoyance.
"I need your help, Oh Master Airbender!" Ikki replied taking the photo out of her robes. "Do you know these people?"
"Well no duh, that's Dad and Aunt Lin-" Jinora said after barely glancing at it.
"Wait MY aunt Lin?" Opal asked nearly tossing her book aside to glide over beside Jinora.
"But her hair is so long!" Ikki said pointing at the woman in the photo with the baby.
"Wait! This doesn't make any sense!" Opal said squinting her eyes and looking more closely.
"But who are the kids?" Ikki asked.
"Oh Vaatu!" Opal cursed.
"I don't know," Jinora said with a furrowed brow.
"She's so pretty!" Ikki said pointing at the girl standing in front of her Dad and Aunt Lin.
The girl appeared to be about eight years old and clearly an earth and metalbender. Even with the photo being black and white with shades of grey, they could tell her clothing would have been green and black. She wore a meteorite bracelet on her skinny little arm and a shiny metal belt around her rail thin torso. Her arms were folded over her dark tunic just like Lin did so often nowadays and there was a smug little smile on her face as if she just won a race, broke some world record, or beat one of her brothers at sparring. Her black hair was tied up in a braid that reminded them so much of Ty Lee, the first chi blocker, and member of the Kyoshi Warriors to be from the fire nation.
The older boy was dressed similarly, but his shirt was shorter, and he carried two hammers chained to his shiny metal belt. He looked to be about nine years old and had short, uniform hair cut. He had two rings of metal bands on his upper arms and metal guards on his forearms. His smile was wide, but not as smug as his little sister. Maybe the curl at the edge of his lips could be interpreted as a smirk. The younger brother, standing in front of Lin seemed less energetic. He didn't carry any weapons, and his arms just hung limply by his side, but he too wore green and black clothing and metal on his forearms, but nowhere else indicating he was most likely also an earth bender.
The toddler and baby were both wrapped in much lighter colors. Air nomad colors? They couldn't tell.
"Is there anything on the back?" Opal asked taking the photo out of Jinora's fingers, turning it over.
"It is so faded!" Ikki exclaimed.
"There was probably writing on it at some point, but it is faded," Jinora said looking more closely, noticing some remnants of graphite powder and some indentations where the writing utensil pressed quite hard, most likely a long time ago.
"There's a number here!" Ikki said pointing at a spot in the bottom left quadrant of the paper. "9! And a name beside it. Kung- no Nung- no- Hung! That is an H! Hung-Jian! Hung-Jian 9!" Ikki said.
"That must be the boy with the hammers!" Opal exclaimed.
"The next one looks like... Hui-Fan 8" Ikki said squinting.
"I see it now. Then Jin-Kun, 6" Opal read.
"Jie-Xue 3"
"Xiao-yu 1!"
"And there's a line here and here!" Jinora exclaimed noticing the remnants of a line along the edge of the drawing and following it up and around the back of the photograph.
"It is a symbol of sorts!" Opal realized. It was the earth kingdom symbol with the three swirls of the air nomads inside of it. "But what does the symbol mean? Earth and Air?" Opal asked.
"Obviously! And dad and Lin WERE dating at the time by their ages and how long Lin's hair is in the photo," Jinora said flipping it back over.
"They looked so happy!" Ikki said with a bit of sadness in her voice.
"They DO look happy!" A fourth voice said behind them. The three girls jumped as Meelo hopped over Jinora's head landing in front of them, snatching the photo in the process.
"MEEELO!" They screamed all fighting to get the photo back, as Meelo dodged their efforts effortlessly, sliding across the room quickly with little bursts of air.
Finally, Jinora snatched it up.
"I think it is time for a trip to the BEIFONG ESTATE!" Meelo exclaimed with his fist in the air.
"Wait!" Jinora interrupted him. "What Beifong estate? Lin lives in a sparse, rather shabby apartment off Arbor street that overlooks Little Ba Sing Se shopping center. I go there once a week to a cup of tea and a new book. She always has the best books-"
"You see MY Aunt Lin more than me?" Opal asked with a bit of surprise.
Jinora shrugged.
"When did you start borrowing books from Aunt Lin?" Ikki asked.
"It is none of your business!" Jinora snapped.
"Meelo, what makes you believe this estate you know is connected to my family?" Opal asked.
"Well it is a massive enclosed complex with a large wall around it, a nice house, with green shingles, and a massive garden with a walking path in the shape of a flying boar," Meelo described with his eyes closed and his hands on his hips and his chin up arrogantly.
"Where is it?" Jinora asked.
Meelo walked over to the couch and climbed onto it to point out the window and towards some hills just beyond the city.
"Up on that terrace on that mountain. It is tucked away." Meelo answered.
"When did you see it? How do you know this place even exists?" Ikki demanded.
"I was out doing a flying lesson with my troupe of ring-tailed lemurs!" Meelo explained simply, rolling his eyes. "You could have come with but..."
"What is going on in here? I heard an awful amount of yelling, is everything okay?" Pema asked appearing in the doorway.
"Everything's fine!" the children all exclaimed, Jinora hiding the photograph behind her back.
"Alright, well as long as you're having fun and not hurting each other, I am happy," Pema said approaching them to kiss each of her children on the head and hug Opal out of courtesy.
"Opal, you're welcome to join us in the main house for dinner. You know you don't have to keep dining with the other air benders," Pema offered.
"I don't mind it, actually. It gives Kai someone to talk to that isn't over the age of thirty five," Opal replied. "But thank you for the invitation." Opal smiled.
"Any time, Sweetie!" Pema said. "I'm going to go put Rohan down for a nap. Okay nicely!"
"Yes, Mom!" the airbender children minus Opal called.
As soon as Pema was gone, Ikki grabbed Meelo by his collar. "Take us to this estate!"
"YES SIR!" Meelo said saluting his sister before marching out of the room to go get his gliders.