Work Text:
Old
(Thousand lifes)
The dark sky over the Republic’s mountains was as clear as Korra remembered, stars shining endlessly. It had a grip on her she never could explain. Even now after years the stars had a way of drawing her in.
Neither Naga, who slept next to her feet, nor her family, behind her in the living room, had an eye for it. Her grandchildren and children were too enamored with her newborn great granddaughter, while her children bickered like they always did.
It awoke a wave of memories in her, how she and Asami had loved to look at the stars together. Comparing the different night sky to each other from different nations while traveling. How five years ago, as Asami was laid to rest, Korra not only put some of Asami’s most prized blueprints into her pyre, but also adorned her still body with a beautiful star necklace.
Tears tore on the corner of her eyes and she could feel the centuries in her bones like never before. Time had settled deep between her rips, had marked her skin and dulled her eyes. In the whirlwind of her life, she had gotten old.
A sudden burst of laughter from her grandchildren shifted the memories again.
With the celebration of their five year relationship, Asami and her had talked in depth about the future. What it would entail for both of them and they had decided that children would not be part of it. Korra as the Avatar had obligations that took her away too often. As CEO of Future Industries and the Republic’s main urban planner, Asami’s workload was too much. They barely had time for each other. So they lived their life blissfully as two. They had gotten married and five years changed to six and eight and suddenly ten.
Then came Panuk and changed everything. An ice storm tormented part of the North relentlessly and wasn’t calmed down by any bending. It was very bad and soon enough people suspected spirit interference. The Avatar was called.
It turned out that bandits had angered an ice spirits and it took some work to calm them down. The aftermath was brutal. Almost all bandits and their families were killed and the ones who lived had almost nothing left.
While helping with the clean up, they found Panuk under a snowdrift, almost two months old and on death’s door. No parents were found. Thankfully Kya, who had already tried to calm the storm for weeks prior, had healed the infant fast enough. But nobody in the North wanted to give the child a home. All of them feared angering the spirits again, by giving home to a bandits child.
Korra decided to bring him to the South in hopes to find a family for him there. Since nobody knew if bringing an infant into the spirit world was advisable they took him by boat.
And in the night the ocean had gotten wild. A storm rolled over the big yacht, shaking them awake and around. Asami took the screaming Panuk out of his crib and Korra stormed out into the ocean, bending wave after wave, guiding the ship through the storm till the water calmed again in the earlier morning.
Wet and tired, she went below deck as soon as she got the chance. Worried for Asami and the child, she did not bother drying herself first. And as she stepped into the infant’s room she heard her wife's humming. Holding him safe in her arm illuminated by the rising sun Asami looked at her with eyes full of love and future. Panuk laughed for the first time at Korra’s dishevelment and the decision was made without a word.
Interestingly enough he had a talent for earth bending, but no interest in honing it. Instead he loved to tinker with Asami. Korra had enjoyed watching both of them covered in oil, deep into an engine muttering things to each other she was never able to decipher.
He grew up to become Asami’s successor and led the Future Industries levelheaded and passionate. It had made Asami tear up often.
Half a year later Keai and Ming loudly barged into their lives.
Asami, Panuk, Korra and her parents had taken a vacation on one of the Earth Kingdom’s many beaches. Enjoying life and warm sun, training first steps on soft sand. In the middle of one of those serene days Mako’s massage had reached them.
Someone tried to break into Asami’s high rise apartments. The somebody was Ming, a nine year old air bender and thief. For years parents went to Tenzin with children who discovered their air bending abilities, asking for guidance and help. But Ming’s and Keai’s had died one after the other and the older girl, in an attempt to care for her six year old sister, worked with gangs that still riddled Republic City.
As warden of the state, both girls got sent to Air temple Island where Ming broke one rule after another. Destroying everything in her path with an irrepressible rage.
To lighten the burden on Jinora and Tenzin, Korra and Asami took the girls in, Keai would not leave Ming and Ming would never had left her sister behind. And while Keai adapted fast, taking to Korra and Asami instantly and adopting Panuk as her cute, little brother, Ming was a troublemaker for years to come.
Korra once told her parents in private how draining it could be to deal with the recklessness of the girl. Which made her mother laugh at her, telling her that parents were bound to get at least one child resembling oneself. Pouting, she went to Asami mumbling her how her mother was mocking her, just to have her wife laugh at her too.
Then came the time when Keai came to both of them full of worry. Ming, days away from being fifteen had not left her bed all evening, not wanting to be disturbed by Keai herself, which was highly unusual.
Asami had softly asked into the dark, if they were allowed to come in and since there wasn’t a snippy remark both of them sat down onto the bed. In seconds Ming had fallen in both their lap and arms. Screaming and crying in so much pain, as if her body had to expel a hurt sitting deep in her tiny soul. Ming never told them what was so heavy in her heart that evening, but afterward her entire being calmed down.
She even started to call them mom and mum. At least sometimes, mostly when she needed to mouth off a little. It made Korra’s heart swell, like almost nothing else ever did.
It was almost ironic how this freedom seeking child found love in the South, where she had started a family and was now on the track to be on the counsel of elders.
Keai, as soft spoken and timid she had been, did not care much for relationships and children. Instead she had followed her idol Uncle Mako into the police force. There she showed almost daily how scary she could be, even as a non bender.
At last Tikani and Hiroaki joined them. Panuk had just celebrated his fourth birthday, Keai was planning her tenth birthday with scary precision, while Ming pretended to not care about childish things.
Republic Cities Hospital had contacted them, telling them there were twins waiting. It was a curious, wild day.
In the morning a young pregnant woman of water tribe descent had entered the hospital. She gave birth to twins and afterwards, while the nurse went out to bring the new mother some food, she had vanished. Leaving behind a note, that the children were to be given into the care of the Avatar and Asami Sato. They tried to find her for weeks after, but no lead ever came up.
So for the first time since they had started their family, Korra and Asami had the press take pictures of them and the twins. Telling the world they safely arrived at their destination and that they will always be able to be found.
Tikani grew up not caring much for her origin. She concentrated on perfecting her fire bending and finding her own family in misfits and orphans. With nine children she called her own, and two spouses she always brought the wildest stories and life to every family gathering.
Hiroaki, however, searched long and hard for answers, only to never find them. He found a different kind of peace in the love for his husband. And Korra begged the spirits to let his tranquility never end.
Through all the ups and downs, Naga had been on her side, helping her raise the children in a way only a Polarbeardog could. She loved to howl for Korra the second one of her children felt uncomfortable. Chuckling Korra slowly got up, Naga lifted her head and the loud conversation died. Hiroaki took her arm almost instantly, helping her to find a balance that did not come easily anymore.
“Mum.” His voice was soft. “Do you want to got to bed?”
Korra nodded and patted the helping hand. Seeing the veins and creases on her own hand always surprised her. She never felt old, but when she looked at herself she saw a woman who lived a long life. A fulfilling life.
And now all of her children, grandchildren and their spouses followed her into her bedroom.
She had called them days ago, telling them she would go to the mountain mansion, that she could feel her legend end. They had come the following day showered her with love and care for days now and while she felt their love deeply and loved them as deeply back, she missed her wife. Living for almost one hundred years felt longer and shorter than she could ever imagine.
As she was settling into bed, Ming took her hand in hers again. The air was tense and weightless simultaneously.
“Mom.” Ming’s voice was untypically thin, laced with tears. “I just wanted to thank you. Ma and you stood by me … us. We were not of your blood and both of you still cared.”
Korra chuckled, laying back into the pillows. “Where is that coming from?” None oft them answered, but the air felt too heavy for a joke so she squeezed Ming’s hand softly. She understood her children's feelings well. She herself had felt it at the time her mother, the last of the mentors of her youth, died. A helplessness that made one feel like a child again. Looking reassuring in her daughter's eyes she spoke softly. “What is flesh to our immortal souls? I lived a thousand lives. All of us have crossed paths a hundred times, as friends, family, maybe enemies. For my soul and yours, blood is meaningless my love.” She looked up at her family. “Don’t make such long faces. We will meet again and again.” She let go of the hand, pulling her blanket a little higher. Keai helped her, since she felt a little weak. Meanwhile Naga had managed to follow her, laying her head half onto her legs with a huff.
As she closed her eyes Korra smiled and mumbled, “I can’t wait to meet your mother again. I wonder who she will be this time.”
Panuk had said something, but it got drowned in the sudden wailing of her youngest great granddaughter. “I will take her outside.” She heard someone say, it was hard to hear over the cries.
“Don’t.” Korra said through her sudden tiredness. She started to pet Naga’s head with weak strokes. Her best friend’s fur had gotten rough over the years. “It’s a good sound… The sound of life.”
She heard her children chuckle and sniffing. She could feel them settling around her. The infant’s wailing still prominent in her ears, while she felt a deep sleep overcoming her. Then the cries dimmed, almost fading into silence.
Suddenly it picked up again.
Loud and blaring in her own ears.
The infant cries were hers.