Chapter Text
It all happened so quickly. One second Keith was playing with his adopted brother Takashi in front of his adoptive parents' little farm. They lived on this small farm in the Earth Kingdom and both his parents were earthbenders, just like their son Takashi. And just like Keith always had thought that he also was.
If you were to ask Keith what happened, he would say, "I-I, mm, I burn-ned h-im..." as it's a sad and scary memory to him. But, if you were to ask Takashi what happened, it would be, "I found out that Keith was a multibender! And that he is stronger then I would have ever imagened." Takashi is just to proud of his brother to even bother with the fact that he lost his arm. Because he did lose his arm.
It all happened so quickly. Especially for the parents. The father, Yun, had the mixed pleasure and horror of seeing this fight play out. It had started with just playing. Takashi and Keith was running around and playing catch. Then suddenly Keith had fallen and Takashi placed his hand on his head, screaming "You're it!" and then Keith took his brother's arm and... FIRE!
Everything was burning and Yun couldn't do much else, but scream and run to his sons. As soon as he began screaming his wife, Ling, came running out of the house screaming "Keith! Takashi!" and then the fire died almost immediately and inside was a crying Keith and a past-out Shiro, who's arm was almost completely burned up, all the way up to the elbow.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Keith kept screaming as he covered his eyes while tears poured out. Neither Yun or Ling ran to Keith though, they both ran to their biological son, since he was the one who was passed out. Only when they were sure Shiro was breathing, they finally turned their attention onto Keith, who had curled up in a ball while screaming "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Again and again in childhood fright and confusion.
Ling ran to her adopted son and pulled him to her chest and began shushing him gently. Keith's screams turned to mumbling as he finally calmed down and finally he fell asleep into her chest, his hands clinging her shirt. So now the two parents sat there with two small, past-out boys. Yun and Ling looked at each other and went inside their small house to put them to bed as they didn't know what else to do.
That was 5 years ago and after that incident their parents began contacting elementary masters and everyone they dared, they told of Keith's multiple abilities. Fast forward to said boy's 12th birthday, where the little family got an unexpected visitor.
It was Ling who first spotted this visitor. She had been sitting outside, looking after Keith as he practiced his firebending. They had put a pind in the middle of their foreground and put multiple torches around on the walls and he was lighting them up as she called out the numbers of them and put them out when she repeated. They had done this multiple times as they lived so far from the closest city so they can't see the fire. But back to the visitor. Ling didn't recognize him, but she assumed it had to one of the bending masters that they had sent letters to and hoped it was one of those they had told about Keith's rather peculiar abilities. She hoped that her husband and son would be home soon so that they could meet this man too, if he was who she thought he was. If not, then to take him away.
"Hello, who is coming there?" She called out, startling her adopted son out of his training, so that all the fires went out and soon he ran to hide behind her, hiding his face in her skirt.
The man took of his big straw hat, which was quite common in the area due to the burning sun, and held it to his chest, before bowing politely to the mother, "My name is Fu, I am a Firebender and a Fire-master and I am here due to your letter? This is the right place right? And that is Keith, correct?" Master Fu showed Ling a letter and she quickly recognized it as one of those her husband had written.
"Yes, yes, my name is Shirogane Ling and this is my son that we talked about, Keith." But before she could show him to the fire master, he was gone as he sprinted inside to hide. Ling signed and turned her attention to Master Fu once again, "You will have to excuse my son, he gets so shy around new people, especially when they see him bending."
"It's perfectly understandable, I would react like that too if I was in his position." Master Fu said with his hoarse voice. The man, who already was spotting white hair, looked at the younger woman whom he now knew to be the mother of the child he was supposed to take a look at and maybe train. "May I ask, are you the boy's biological mother? It's just so I know in case."
Ling shake her head with a small sad smile ghosting her lips, "No." She had never found out who or where he was actually from, but she loved him just at much as her own biological son. "But I love him still." Fu didn't really know how to react to that, so he didn't. Instead he looked around the frontyard and took note of all the torches, trunks and soil that was ready for planting and wondered just how much they had trained their adopted son. This place looked like a farmer's house, not a place to train a young bender. "Miss Shirogane, does your son train here in the frontyard?" He asked as he went on his knees to touch the earth. The soil was soft and clearly newly dug up. It was perfect for planting. Did the boy do this or was it the rest of the family? "Yes, he and his brother, Takashi, train as much as they can, but we only know earth-bending techniques and we have taught them all we can and even observed some other benders in the area. Takashi has talked a lot about also wanting to go train under a master, but we have been more urgent in getting a master for Keith, so that he learn to control his special... uh... you know." She didn't want to say 'needs' or 'problems' and Keith always seemed so sad, so downgraded, then she said 'abilities', so she had fallen to a lost of words to discribe the phenomenon.
"This is an interesting training ground you have set up." Master Fu stated as he began walking around the improvised training area. There wasn't much space here for bending, but it seemed suitable for small, everyday bending maneuvers. He thought to himself how, if they would allow him, he wanted to take Keith, and maybe also Takashi, with him to his temple. He knew a earth-bender Master who lived close to him, who was looking for students and they had already talked about Keith. He would be thrived to have a full-time student too, but he didn't tell Ling as he was afraid she would overreact or think that it was to quickly to just give her sons to a perfect stranger and that this should probably be a family decision and not something to spring on the mother.
"Would you like some tea while we wait?" Ling asked as she moved towards the small house that she and her family had lived in since they began. Fu wasn't entirely sure how four people could live in such a small place, but accepted anyways and walked with the mother into the livingroom and sat at their small dinner table.
Yun and Takashi came home from their job and part-time job at their little shop, a little after noon and where both happy and shocked that Ling was sitting with this elderly stranger in their living room.
"Oh, hello, Takashi, Yun, please meet Fire-Master Fu." Ling introduced both parties to each other with a small smile. After that they had the conversation that they all slightly dreaded, all but Master Fu that is. "I wish to take Keith with me to my temple and if Takashi really wants to train under a Master, then I know an Earth-Master that I contacted on behalf of Keith, but I'm sure he wouldn't mine getting a full time student, he'd probably be delighted." Fu explained his intentions and then followed it up with how far away it was and how the journey would be 3 days, with stops to sleep and eat on the way.
Neither Yun or Ling was very excited about having both their sons so far away, but if it helped them... then they would take the offer and suck up their discontent. But first they had to talk with Keith about it as Takashi didn't need much time to spit out, "I want to go!" which made Master Fu laugh and they fell into polite conversation.
"Keith?" Yun asked into the room his sons used to share. He moved closer when he heard a faint agreement noice from the closet. He couldn't see his son, but that hadn't stopped them from having conversations before. "I just want to hear if you would be ok with what Master Fu is offering. He says that he will take you to the edge of the earth nation and train you there. It's a three day journey and Takashi will come with you. He has contacted another teacher there can show you more complex earth-bending then we can never do." Fun tried to explain the whole affair, but he almost began crying of the thought that his two boys maybe wouldn't come back, ever again.
"Can I come see you and mom?" Keith asked from inside the closet where he was hiding. He was worried that, if he left he could never really return. If he left his parents then he would never be the same as before he left. Granted that would happen no matter what, but all he know he had learned from his parents and Takashi. He didn't really want a new teacher, but that seemed to be what he got. "We will always want you here Keith, but you know... you can never come back if you never leave." Yun said, his voice clearly effected by the tears he was about to shed. It was hard knowing that his 12th year old son had the same concerns as he. But he had done all he could and it was time for him to let go. It was time for them to spread their wings and fly themselves, he didn't want to hold them back. He didn't know much about Fire- or Air- or Water-bending and even though Keith was learning by himself, it was also important that he learned the right ways to handle it all, the right techniques. Granted they couldn't give him an Air-bending teacher as there were next-to-non left, but he wanted the best for his sons, even if the best wasn't with him.
Keith opened the closet door and ran to his father, crying into his shoulder and Yun's also finally fell as he held his youngest son close. He didn't want to go, but he knew he must. He was twelve for the Gods' sake! He had to act like it. "I'll miss you." He whimpered out. "I'll miss you too." Yun hugged Keith into his chest for what felt like seconds but was probably much longer as Takashi came to knock on the door, claiming that Master Fu would stay for dinner so he could meet Keith. Keith pulled away from his father and began drying his eyes before settling down on the floor next to him. They didn't say anything, they just sat there as Yun copied his son. The silence was comfortable, but pressing at the same time. They waiting for something, but none of them knew what. All they knew was that this couldn't continue forever. Keith was the one to break the silence. "I'll go." He stared and looked at his father for any reaction, catching his bloodstock eyes. Yun couldn't believe that his young son could sound so... final... "I do want to learn more, but I want to come back here then I have learned it all." Keith voice was soft, as if he was comforting his father and not reassuring himself. "I can live with that son, but now..." Yun stood up and held out a hand to his son, a sad smile turning more relaxed, "do you want to meet your new teacher?" "Ok." Keith replied and took the mans hand. The rest of the night consisted of dinner, introductions and demonstrations of Keith's and Takashi's powers.
The next day they left to go to the temple where they would learn and study as Yun and Ling waved them off. Both with tears streaming down their faces at the goodbye.
~End of 1. chapter~