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in you i see myself
Katara is at her wit’s end. Six year old Kya just discovered how to throw snowballs with her waterbending, little Tenzin has somehow learned that he can air blast jars of pickled sea prunes off the shelves, and Bumi—
Bumi is far too quiet. Her eldest son has always displayed Aang’s sense of humor and proven himself to be an adept prankster, but in the past year… he’s withdrawn into himself. He no longer plays tricks on Kya, in fact, he doesn’t play with her much at all. He just sits by himself, watching silently each day as Katara leads Kya through a scroll of waterbending katas. If Katara didn’t know any better, she’d say the look on his face is a cross between sullen and desperate.
It isn’t until a particularly warm night in the South Pole that Katara finally connects the dots. As she puts Tenzin down to bed in his hammock cradle, Kya pulls on her sleeve.
“Mommy!”
Katara shushes her, pointing to her only-just-now-sleeping brother. “What?” she whispers to her daughter.
“Mommy, Bumi’s trying to walk on water!”
Well shit. Katara rushes into their cabin’s main living room and grabs Aang. “Kya, take us to Bumi.”
The little girl rushes outside with her parents right behind her. She runs to the dock a few yards from their homestead and points out onto the ice. Sure enough, a small figure is walking up to the edge where the ice meets waves. Aang calls out to him, “Bumi! Come back from the edge!” but his words are whipped away by the polar wind. Bumi doesn’t hear his father calling for him to come back.
“I’ll go to him.” Katara gingerly steps out onto the ice, shaking her head at Aang. She’s not sure the ice could hold his weight. She slides across the crackling ice in her mukluks, inching her way to her son. “Bumi? Why are you out here? Come away from the edge. Your Daddy and I are worried.”
Bumi finally hears her and turns to his mother, opening his mouth to speak.
And the ice fucking shatters underneath him.
“Bumi!” Katara starts running, not caring about carefully placing her feet anymore. Bumi’s dark head of hair disappears under the surface and Katara channels all of her energy into creating a wave to pull him back onto the ice. The ocean surrenders Bumi to her and she drops to her knees beside her son. Placing her hands on his chest, she feels the icy water in his lungs. Moving her hands slowly up his airway, she pulls the offending liquid out of his body and disperses the water soaking into his clothing. Bumi sputters and Katara cradles him in her arms. He opens his eyes and looks at her guiltily.
“Bumi, what were you thinking? You know spring is coming, the ice isn’t stable!”
“It was a full moon tonight and I thought… I thought if I just got close enough to the ocean I could finally bend and make you and Daddy proud.” Bumi’s bottom lip quivers, and not from the cold. Katara’s heart breaks.
“Bumi, baby, you don’t have to be a waterbender to make me or Daddy proud. We love you just as you are!”
“Then why don’t you have time for me?”
“Oh, Bumi, I’m so sorry.” Katara pulls her son into her shoulder. “I’m so sorry if you feel left out when your siblings are training. But I want you to know that you don’t have to be a bender to make me proud.”
They walk off of the ice together. Aang makes sure their home’s fire burns hotter that night. Kya brings Bumi a blanket and holds his little hand in hers. And Katara writes a letter.
Sokka,
Can you find room in your schedule for a visit? I need your help with something, urgently. Bring your favorite weapons and that husband of yours. I’ll give you enough pickled sea prunes to make it worth your while.
Your sister,
Katara.
Sokka isn’t surprised to see another servant bringing him a message from a hawk. His husband had gifted all the members of the Gaang messenger hawks as they went back to their respective nations, and he frequently gets letters from Toph, Suki, and the Oogies in the South Pole.
He cherishes every letter. Toph is continuing to recruit new students for her metal-bending academy; Suki is working with the rest of the Kyoshi warriors to train the next generation of badass women warriors; and his sister and brother-in-law are building their family together and rebuilding their respective bending traditions. Katara has been endlessly petitioning the Northern Tribe to teach their women to bend, and in the meanwhile, she’s teaching Kya and some other promising children from the Southern Tribe. Sokka couldn’t be prouder of her.
Rhana, Sokka’s assistant, presents him with the new letter. “From the Southern Water Tribe, Lord Sokka.”
“Thank you, Rhanna. Will you tell my husband to come find me when he’s free? I assume he’ll want to know the contents of this letter as well.”
Rhanna makes the sign of the flame. “Of course.”
Sokka breaks the blue seal on the letter and recognizes the writing of his sister—Aang’s handwriting has come a long way, thank La, but Katara’s is still much easier to read. Sokka quickly scans the short lines of the letter, wondering what his sister urgently needs his help with. In his last correspondence, Aang was over the moon that Tenzin was starting to show airbending abilities, and Sokka knew that Kya was on her way to becoming a waterbending prodigy. So what could possibly be going wrong with the young family?
There’s a knock at Sokka’s door. “Come in,” he says, looking up from the letter. Zuko steps into his study and walks over to his desk.
“What’s the latest from the South?” He peers at the Katara’s neat handwriting.
Sokka kisses him on the cheek, “well, dear husband, it appears that Katara is requesting our presence to deal with an urgent matter.” He smiles. “She also says to bring weapons, so it might be dangerous.”
“Dangerous? Sounds like fun.” Zuko replies, interlacing one of his hands with Sokka’s. “Let’s go on an adventure.”
Aang is meditating on a snowy cliff face when he sees a Water Tribe ice-cutting boat approach the South Pole. One that flies a Fire Nation flag alongside the Water Tribe one. Sokka and Zuko.
He calls out to Katara, who is tanning a sealskin on the shore beneath him. “Look!” When she looks out onto the shoreline, she smiles widely and waves up at him, an unspoken invitation for Aang to come and greet their visitors. Aang jumps from the cliff, using his airbending to gently float down next to his wife. He kisses her forehead and then kisses little Tenzin, who’s giggling from where he’s laced into a cradle board on Katara’s back.
“I’ll go get Kya and Bumi and meet you at the docks?”
Katara smiles. “I hope they can help.”
When Sokka brings his boat into the docks, he’s greeted by two tiny humans running up to him, yelling, “Akkak Sokka! Akkak Sokka!” He sweeps them both into his strong arms, shocked at how much Kya and Bumi have grown since he’s seen them.
“Tui and La, you’re both getting so big! Where’s your Anaana?”
“I’m right here, silly.” Katara joins them on the docks, holding little Tenzin in her arms, Aang behind her. “Where’s your husband?”
“Coming!” Zuko’s voice is a shout from below the ship deck. There’s a bang, a few choice curse words in High Fire that the kids can’t understand, and Zuko emerges, carrying his and Sokka’s luggage. “I’m here!”
The Fire Lord is immediately tackled by his niece and nephew, knocking him and the luggage to the ground of the docks. Somehow, in a pile of baggage and laughing children, he still manages to make eye contact with Katara and sigh. “I guess I should have seen that coming.”
Katara laughs as Sokka offers him his arm. “Okay rascals, run along now—but be home before nightfall!” In the blink of an eye, the two kids disappear over a snowy ridge. Zuko stands, holding Sokka’s gloved hand in his.
“So, what is the matter you need urgent help with?” Sokka asks, looking around at the quiet village.
Katara sighs, and Aang rubs his hands along her shoulders. “It’s Bumi,” the Avatar says. “So far, he hasn’t shown any bending abilities, and Katara and I thought we were still doing a good job of making him feel included but—the other night he almost died because he wanted to prove to us he could waterbend.”
Both Sokka and Zuko knows what that feels like. To feel less than compared to prodigious siblings. “So that’s why you called us specifically,” Zuko nods in understanding. “What do you want us to do?”
“Teach him to be a badass?” Aang suggest jokingly. “Seriously, he really wants something to train the same way his sister trains her bending. He feels left out and alone.”
Sokka looks at his husband. “I think we can do that.” He turns back to Katara. “You told us to bring out favorite weapons and we delivered. You’ll have a little dual-dao Kyoshi warrior on your hands in no time.”
He smiles. This, he thinks, is the best part about being an uncle. Teaching the kiddos to kick ass.
The next day, Sokka wakes Bumi up early. “How would you like to watch me and Zuko spar?”
Bumi’s eyes widen, and he immediately jumps up from his bed, pulling his boots on. “Yes, please!” He hurriedly pulls on his park, little hands tying the closures nimbly. “I’m ready!”
Sokka laughs and puts a finger to his lips. “Don’t wake up your sister. This is just for you.” He leads Bumi outside, and the two of them look out across the snowy landscape, finding Zuko meditating on a cliff face, facing the slowly rising sun, breathing in time with a little flame formed in his right palm.
Bumi runs to him. “Good morning, Akkak Zuko!” Zuko opens his eyes to peer down at his nephew and smiles. Bumi sits next to him, his eyes wide and focused on the flame. “What are you doing?”
Zuko grins. “I’m meditating, connecting with my inner fire before I start the day,” he inhales to show Bumi how the flame in his hand grows, and then exhales as the flame falls. Bumi watches with rapt attention, and Zuko feels his heart warm at the sight of a child so unafraid and trusting of fire. “Have you never seen your dad do this?”
“No, Papa doesn’t firebend very much.”
Zuko makes a tutting noise. “Busted! I’ll be having a little chat with your dad about that before we leave.” Bumi giggles and Zuko ruffles his spiky hair, just a little too short to be tied into a wolf tail. “But I believe today is all about you, Bumi! Did you want to see me and Sokka spar?”
Bumi nods emphatically and Zuko rises, turning to face his husband. “Sokka, are you all ready?”
“Yup!” Sokka unsheathes a longsword from the scabbard at his hip – his beloved space sword that Zuko helped recover after the comet – and takes a fighting stance.
Zuko unsheathes his dual dao swords from their carrier on his back, and chuckles inwardly at Bumi’s little gasp when he realizes that Zuko’s one sword is actually two. The two men begin to spar, and it feels like a familiar dance. Even in the snow, Zuko’s footing stands firm against Sokka’s parries. Sokka knows how to use the snow to his advantage, and moves fluidly through it, “accidentally” stirring up snowflakes that obscure Zuko’s vision. Their entire session, Bumi sits on a snowbank, watching in awe at his two uncles. Even though Zuko is a firebender, Sokka can still stand his ground against him as a non-bender!
After about twenty minutes, the two men pause, calling a truce and bowing to one another. Bumi claps wildly for both of them. “Can you teach me how to do that?”
Sokka laughs. "Of course, Bumi, that's why we're here!" He crouches in front of his nephew. "Your Anaana told me that you've been feeling really down on yourself because you're not a bender, is that right?"
Bumi nods.
"Do you think your Akkak Sokka isn't cool or special?"
Bumi shakes his head in an emphatic no, "I think you're really strong and cool and special!"
"Am I a bender?"
Bumi gives a slow shake of his head, connecting the dots in his mind. "You're going to teach me how to be strong like you?"
"Absolutely. We're going to start slow, build the basics the same way your Anaana is starting Kya on the basics of waterbending." Sokka pulls two staffs from his pack, one a little shorter than the other, the perfect size for Bumi. He hands the shorter one to Bumi and stands, Bumi mirroring him. "Just like bending, swordsmanship is built on foundational stances. I'm going to show you, and you copy me, yeah?"
Sokka spends the next half hour demonstrating a series of basic forms, with Bumi copying him, and Zuko correcting the boy's posture when necessary. At the end of their training session, all three of them move through the forms in sequence, and though Bumi has only just learned how to hold a weapon, both Sokka and Zuko can see how he's already treating his staff as an extension of his body and moving fluidly with it.
"That's great, Bumi!" Sokka lowers his staff and crouches in front of Bumi again. "Tell you what, whenever I visit, I'll make sure to set aside some time to train with you. At the rate you're progressing, you could start working with a real blade within the year." Bumi beams up at him with his toothy smile. "But you have to promise that you'll be diligent and work on your forms whenever I go away."
"Yes, yes, absolutely!" Bumi exclaims, hugging Sokka with his small arms as tight as he can. "I promise I'll be the best student you've ever had."
You're my only student, Sokka wants to quip, but he doesn't want to ruin the moment. He pulls away from Bumi and motions for Zuko to come forward. "And you know how your Akkak Zuko is a really strong firebender?" Bumi nods. "He didn't start bending until he was really old, he was a late bloomer."
"Really?" Bumi gapes at Zuko. "But... you're the best firebender in the world!"
Zuko laughs. "Really! And when I finally started bending, I wasn't very good at it. It took me a really long time to become a master."
"You never know, Bumi," Sokka ponders as he lifts Bumi into his arms and they start the trek back to the homestead. "You could start bending decades from now."
"Yeah..." Bumi marvels. "But I still want to learn how to fight with a sword!"
Zuko and Sokka share a happy look. "We can help with that," Sokka replies, holding his nephew close to his chest.
Bumi becomes one of the best swordsmen that the Water Tribe has ever seen. He progresses with surprising speed under the tutelage of both the Fire Lords, mastering an airbender's staff within the year, the longsword the year after that, and the dual dao swords two years after that. Zuko brings Piandao to the South Pole to meet his nephew, and his old master cannot help but smile at Bumi, who reminds him so much of Sokka with his quick thinking and creative problem solving.
It's no surprise to anyone that Zuko and Sokka approach Bumi one day in his twenties and ask him if he wants to be part of a new initiative - a united army, made up of people from all four nations, benders and non-benders alike. Bumi agrees with enthusiasm, and under his supervision, the United Forces prosper, proving that benders and non-benders can work together and fight together.
On a cool night after Korra opens the Spirit Portals, Bumi walks out onto a balcony on Airbender Island, and looks up at the full moon.
"Hey, um, Akkak Sokka," he begins, his eyes focused upwards. "I don't know if you can hear me, but I wanted you to know that you were right." His eyes water as he sees the statue of his father. "I did start bending, but... I want you to know I haven't forgotten anything you've taught me. I guess I wanted to say thank you, one more time." Bumi dries his eyes and returns inside.
Somewhere, deep in the Spirit World, Sokka pauses in the middle of his Pai Sho game with Iroh and smiles.
"I knew it."