Who am I without you?

The Beginning

"So, let's start with the basics," Katara said as the two women sat on the couch in her office.

The room was so comfortable and relaxing. The perfect way to unwind after a stressful day. Which is why Kya remembers being in this room more than any other in the temple.

"What do you want us to start with mom?" Kya said. She was so embarrassed at this point that she hid Ayani from her that she was ready to get this done with.

Katara laughed. "Relax Kya, start with where you both met, and just go from there. I just want to know!" It was obvious that she was excited. In Kya's entire time growing up she had never brought anyone home to meet her family. Now she had surprised her mother by being married.

Ayani smiled at Kya and squeezed her hand. "I've got this love." She whispered.

"Thank spirits," Kya replied with a sigh. She could probably tell it better since she was the one who confessed her feelings in the first place.

Ayani took a breath and looked to Katara. "We met at a camp on ember island. She had been training on the beach and I was there to help heal someone's sick mother. I had gone down to a ledge to soak in the beautiful day and saw her using a whip of water to write her name in the sand." She stopped for a moment remembering the encounter. "It was great to see another water bender, but I had never seen her before, and although the northern tribe is large, having mastered my element and more I hadn't met A LOT of people there. I went down to meet her and found out she was from the south. We talked for a long time and I offered her to travel some with me and train her in return. So we began a journey together and I let her choose where we would go."

Kya sighed at the memory. "She forgot the part where she scared the living daylights out of me when she splashed me with a ball of water to get my attention."

Ayani laughed. "OH, I forgot about that!"

"Of course you did." Kya nudged her with her shoulder. "Don't worry, mom likes to hear stories that cause me internal pain."

Katara laughed. "What can I say, they are pretty funny!"

Kya rolled her eyes. "Okay, so then she fell for my charm and that's about it." She said with a shrug.

"Although you are quite the charmer...that definitely was not what solidified it." She laughed at Kya's attempt at rushing the subject. She really liked to watch her squirm.

Ayani played with one of the beads on the small white blonde braids that hung from her hair over her face. "We had been with each other for a few months. I didn't see her as more than a student and a friend." She said, her face turning a bit more pained remembering the rest of the story.

"She found a kid, an earth bender, and he was passed out in a cave. He couldn't have been more than 10 years old and he was beaten up pretty badly. I had been looking for somewhere to set up camp and she figured climbing the side of a mountain was a better idea, so I let her...She disappeared and I couldn't find her anywhere. I searched all day and night before I found her a few miles away from where we had been laying with this injured kid in her lap crying about how she wasn't strong enough to save him. She couldn't have left him to find me, so she did what she could till I could find them." She stopped once again trying to shake the feeling that it had caused. "That's not only the day that I realized I didn't want to ever lose her again, but that I was going to be the one to teach her to master healing as well as bending."

Katara's eyes filled with tears. "As sad as the circumstances were...That's beautiful as well." She looked to her daughter whose eyes were glistening too. "I'm proud of you Kya. I'm sorry that you had to go through that." She got up from the chair she had been sitting in and went to Kya who stood up, wrapping her mother in a tight hug, causing her to cry even more.