Living in a Legacy [ON INDEFINITE HIATUS]

Chapter Six: It's All in the Wrist

Immediately outbursts of enragement were called out and general chaos descended. 

"We deserve to know, too!" Su retorted to Toph, squinting at her. 

"We held our own in the fight against those people," Lin added. 

"We promise that we won't try and stop them on our own if you just let us in on everything," Tenzin offered.

"We told you what we know, now it's your turn!" Bumi seconded. 

"If this is because we're not all benders..." Izumi mumbled to her parents. 

Kya was the only one who protested nothing. She knew from experience that her mom would not relent her decision. She never did. 

"Kya, your father loves you all equally."

"Kya, he doesn't love Tenzin more, he just has a little more to teach him."

"Kya, you can't go to that party. I've never met any of the parents or people there."

"Kya, Kya, Kya..."

It seemed like an endless list, swimming into the abyss of "and that's final" shouts. Or cries. Sometimes Katara whispered these things, as if she, too, had occasionally had a hard time believing them, but other times, she slammed her rule down like a judge's gavel. 

It wasn't Katara's fault, Kya knew, that Aang didn't have time for her and Bumi. It wasn't her fault that their dad was gone so often around the world that the elder siblings had to take care of the younger. And Bumi, being Bumi, would find some way to avoid the responsibility, which left Kya.

Just Kya. 

Sometimes it felt that it was always just her. 

And now, too, was she alone in her judgment not to protest against the adults' ruling, no matter how unfair it was. So she waited with sighs in reserve until the others calmed down and they returned to dinner. 

The atmosphere at the table had changed, however; instead of the content and amiable mood, now it was practically crackling with tension. Kya could tell that they were all a bit on edge, and so was she, internally frustrated for being treated like a child, as she always was. She was seventeen; it was old enough to drive; she was a healer and a talented waterbender, according to her mother (Aang never really took the time to watch her), so she could hold her own in a fight, as she had shown earlier during both of the times Kanna had attacked. 

If only the adults could actually realize it.

ooo

Contrary to what many people would think, Kya hadn't always been as calm as she often appeared. Or, not calm, so to speak, but collected. Generally level-headed. 

She had once pushed herself beyond her limits, desperate to gain Aang's approval, someone's approval other than her mother and Bumi's. She had seen the sadness in her dad's face every time he watched her waterbend, the sadness that she couldn't help to recreate the Air Nation. The sadness that perhaps... perhaps she wasn't fit to carry on his legacy. 

From the time she was ten to her fifteenth birthday, Kya trained, and she trained, and she trained. She didn't have a specific goal in mind, but the days that she exited the temple at night and practiced waterbending in the pond she knew she had to get stronger. She believed that maybe, just maybe, if she could become a powerful enough bender, as powerful as Katara, then perhaps Aang would spend more time with her. Consider her worthy.