The one-eyed Avatars

Chapter 1

When they were born, it didn't seem like they were any alike: one having dark, almost black hair, the other one having lighter, brown hair with a red nuance. When they grew up, they were nothing alike either: it was clear Feliciano, the one with lighter hair, was going to be an airbender only at age one, just like his grandfather, while his only minutes older twin-brother Lovino remained with no bending powers. Lovino got less attention and could never reach his brother, and it got only worse when their mother gave birth to a third son, Romeo, who turned out to be a lovely, social and talented child who was able to airbend, just like his then three years older brother.

Lovino always knew that it'd be his task to stand behind his brothers, meditate and only learning the theory about the spirit world and air nomad's history, how Avatar Korra and her friends and later wife Asami Sato helped building it up again and all of those things, but he got really fed up with this role after a few years. It was not like Lovino wasn't interested in it, he just got frustrated over his position in the family, especially now that he was a teenager.

It was morning and Lovino was supposed to be in class with the other air nomads his age now, as every day after breakfast and meditating, but he decided to skip lesson today. He'd never reach his popular Avatar brother or his one-in-a-million talented brother Romeo, so what was the point? The only thing that was not absolutely perfect about Feliciano was that he didn't seem to be able to pick up any Earth- and Fire bending skills, which he should, they were already fifteen.
Lovino went down some hills of the large plateau, to a small pond where he used to hide and sleep when he skipped class. The place wasn't something special, just some rocks, the small pond with a creek with water so clean it was drinkable. The moss around the pond was soft and perfect for napping on it, making it the perfect spot for the young air nomad. He sat down at the pond, poking the water with a stick out of boredom.

Why was he like this? Why was he the untalented, boring, failure of a son and brother? He didn't want to be the Avatar instead, but at least standing out would be nice. Some people didn't even know that there were three Vargas brothers instead of two. Lovino clenched onto the stick and pulled his knees to his chest. He felt like he was nothing special, just the boring, dumb, good-for-nothing whose only abilities were cooking and eating. He didn't even have a strong spiritual connection. What for anyway?
The teenager clenched his teeth, his face distorted, but he wouldn't allow himself to cry, there was no way he was going to let that happen. He would not allow that feeling to take control of him, he didn't want to be this bitter.
Suddenly he felt a rather small hand on his shoulder, but he hadn't heard anyone coming, damn moss. He turned his head around with a quite startled expression, fearing someone might see him like this. It got worse when he saw who the person was.
Romeo was standing there, looking down at his older brother.
"What's the matter, fratello?" the twelve year old asked, sitting down next to Lovino.
The older boy got defensive, as always, he couldn't stand his younger brother, although it wasn't his fault of course. "Nothing. Shouldn't you be teaching your pre-school class or something like that?" Lovino asked, not getting loud or too upset yet.
"No, I actually just had a meeting with representatives of Republic City, they are considering to take me there to help and teach me to be a diplomat, isn't that great?"
"You're overly mature Romeo" Lovino simply answered, it was a fact that no one seemed to find odd or strange except him. Under different circumstances he might have even wished Romeo good luck, but not right now.
"Leave me alone fratellino."
As said, he couldn't stand his younger brother, he just seemed so ahead of everyone and Lovino was blind for the overly social and caring side of his younger brother since no one had ever cared equally about him as about his brothers, except their mother, but she passed away years ago and their father couldn't deal with three sons on his own too well, although the brothers knew he tried his best.
Romeo nodded hesitantly. "Take care fratello" he said in an unusually serious voice before standing back up and spreading the wing-like pieces of fabric that were attached to the airbender's suits, jumping and gliding into the air into the direction of the temple.