Chapter Text
“Okay, look.” Rocky said, raising her hands the second she appeared. “I know you’re mad.”
“Really, Rocky? Am I mad?” Aang demanded. “How long have you been doing this?!”
“Just a few months! Star made me promise to wait until I turned ten!”
“Ten?! You’ve been doing this for six months?!” Aang clutched at his head. “Rocky! It’s dangerous!”
“I’ve been doing it for months and you never noticed!” Rocky argued. “I’ve been fine!”
(That hurt. Rocky had been jumping into earthbending fights that long and he didn’t see it? What kind of soulmate missed something like this? Had he been so wrapped up with the others that he missed something this obvious?)
“Look, it’s not as bad as you think.” Rocky continued in a rush. “I’m not fighting in the fights. I just jump into their training sometimes. Star made me promise not to challenge the champion until I’ve beaten at least three of the standard fighters. I’m being safe too! I talk to the medics… sometimes and I’m pretty sure that the Hippo is going easy on me, which is so insulting. And I-” Aang groaned, dropping his face in his hands. What was Star thinking enabling this behavior? He should have known that Rocky would follow through on it. What could his plan have been here? “Cloud, I’m not going to stop.” Aang peered through his fingers at her. She was standing solid and stubborn. “I love it. I really love it. And the fighters… they treat me like a kid, like a brat.” She scratched the back of her head. “I feel like a person. They listen to me, even if it’s just to trash talk me back. And the Hippo really went hard against the Gecko after he knocked me out and no one said anything. The medic fussed over me a bunch and I had to ditch the medic and the Headhunter on my way home. Uh, speaking of which, they told me someone should wake me up a couple of times tonight, just in case. I know that Cub came up with a few ways to wake up from the dreamscape. Could you help me with that in a couple hours?”
Aang took a deep breath. “We have a lot to talk about, Rocky.” He said, as sternly as possible. He wanted to know what Star had gotten her to promise, how many injuries she’d gotten, and lay down some rules of his own. Depending on what she said he might also need to come up with some kind of punishment for lying to them. (Aang wasn’t good at punishments. Moonbeam probably had some ideas he could use. She was very worried and angry when she woke up before she could lecture Rocky.)
There were some fights after Rocky’s activities were uncovered. Moonbeam, River, and Cub were all furious with her for putting herself in danger. (It had been one year and two months since they lost a soulmate and they were all as scared as Aang was that they were going to end up losing another one.) Aang decided Rocky’s punishment. She had to listen to each of their concerns and repeat back to them why they were so worried. And (at Moonbeam’s request when that punishment failed to dissuade her) listen to Moonbeam’s lectures on first aid and safety. (It was unquestionably a punishment… Moonbeam was angry but it was also clearly from a place of love and fear, despite that her passive aggressiveness was truly cutting. He was lucky that Rocky got mad fast and forgave fast or he’d be deeply concerned about their relationship.) Aang supplemented the lectures on safety and River and Cub added their experiences with first aid. Eventually, it did become more about teaching Rocky than punishing her (which was more in line with Aang’s goal anyway).
It did turn out that Star had gotten a few decent safeguards in place before he’d been cut off from the dreamscape. Rocky was still far too young, but she was learning from the fighters rather than just trying to fight the champion at the end of every single tournament. Still, as long as she had to defeat three standard fighters before she did something crazy, they were probably fine.
It took two months. Two months after their serious talks and ground rules about medical attention and strategies with Cub about how to stay safe in a fight ring, Rocky defeated the Hippo, Gecko, and Fire Nation Man. (Also, seriously Hippo?! Aang was sure he was going easy on her for that win. Not cool!)
Two weeks after that, the Gopher got sick and the manager asked her to sub in.
She said yes.
This whole thing had gotten out of hand and he didn’t know how to stop it.
“Mom knows about the Rumble.” Rocky said six months later. (One year, ten months after they lost Star.)
“How grounded are you?” Cub asked, while Aang basked in the silent relief that finally someone would stop this. Rocky was a standard fighter now and no one else seemed concerned about it anymore.
“I’m… not…” Rocky answered, sending Aang’s hopes crashing down. Cub straightened.
“You’re kidding.”
Rocky shook her head. “She was at my match. She met me outside and congratulated me, then asked me to help her home.” She seemed a little shellshocked about it. “She told me that it was okay. She isn’t going to stop me, but she wants to talk to me tomorrow.” Rocky laughed a little hysterically. “I mean, if this is a trick, I’ll just break out and run. But… this isn’t the reaction I was expecting.”
“How did she get there?” Aang wondered, recovering from his fallen hopes a bit. “I thought she has trouble walking.”
“She does.” Rocky nodded. “She has bound feet. It’s not easy for her to get around. She must have come with someone who helped her. Probably her bodyguard. I always thought he seemed like a Rumble fan. I bet he’s the poser who ratted me out too!”
“Wait. What are bound feet?” Cub asked. Aang winced. This was not going to be a fun conversation.
Aang was nervous when Rocky woke up the next morning. Her parents seemed to love her, but they were overprotective to the point of stifling. Would Her mother really accept Rocky? Would Rocky actually run away? She wouldn’t go to the Water Tribes with all of that ice and none of the earth… where would she run to?
Rocky was crying muddy tears that contrasted with her wide smile when she appeared in the dreamscape. “Cloud! She meant it!” She threw herself at Aang, trusting him to catch her the way he always did. “We had tea and made tang guozi, those tea cakes you like, and she sent away the servants and asked me to tell her and she listened!” Her excitement was infectious, words tumbling over each other and Aang was grinning too. “She listened to me, Cloud! She told me that she’d never seen anything like my bending!” She hugged Aang tightly.
“I’m happy for you.” He squeezed her back. It was pretty surprising. In his experience, most adults weren’t this fast and good at telling children what they needed to hear, especially not when their entire understanding of them was turned completely on its head. Maybe Rocky’s mother had known longer and had time to process. Either that or she’d been coached, but that seemed unlikely. Who would coach her and help her understand what Rocky most needed to hear?
Rocky was significantly happier now that her mother knew and accepted her. They spent time together every day, doing the small earthbending tricks that her mother could do with just her hands. Her mother, who Rocky eventually told them to call Flower, hid the truth from her more protective father and, to Rocky’s reluctantly fond irritation, sent her personal guard to observe every Rumble and walk home with her. (It was a relief to Aang. Finally, someone was looking out for Rocky! TWO someones with the guard who had been sworn to secrecy!) Flower even managed to attend Rocky’s most important bouts, though they weren’t exactly to her more refined tastes.
She was there when Rocky became a champion.
Flower loved Rocky, really loved her. And Rocky loved her right back.
“Here.” Rocky said, handing Cloud a crude crystal flower (one he was able to see since she was using crystal that someone else had brought into the dreamscape). “How does it look?”
“It’s very nice.” Aang smiled. “Ouch!” He rubbed his shoulder. “Rocky!”
“Don’t lie. It sucks.” Rocky growled snatching it away. “Seriously, how does she do it?!”
“DO what?” Aang asked, a little annoyed. Rocky pulled something out of her dust fine hair.
“Here, don’t drop it.” She told him. Aang gingerly accepted the invisible object. By feel, he determined it was a delicate, incredibly intricate rose made out of some kind of crystal. “Mom made it…” Rocky went quiet. “Cloud… you know how Mom can’t walk very well?”
Aang winced. “Yeah?”
“I think it’s… she can’t earthbend like me.” She took back the rose. “She can make things like this, but she can barely skip a paving stone. It is pretty unfair, right?”
“It is.” Aang agreed. “Foot binding is… it was controversial in my day.” It made him sound like an old man but it was true.
“I never really questioned it.” Rocky admitted, fiddling with the unseen rose. “She’s actually really good at earthbending, but she physically can’t do more.”
“She could…” Aang said slowly. “Not like you. But the same way you can see but not see, she can find alternatives for her talent.” He took the rose and tucked it back into her dusty locks. “It looks like she already is.”
Rocky and her mother continued to experiment with earthbending. It seemed like what Flower lacked in strength she made up for with incredible precision. One day Rocky even presented Aang with a flower that was a haze of red. “My mom worked out how to change the color of the crystal!” Rocky declared proudly. “Now I know what ‘red’ is!” (Everything else was still invisible. It only worked with the crystals Flower practiced on. Greens and blues and golds in the shape of an intricate flower. Not clear, by any means, but created in a way that Rocky could perceive. Moonbeam in particular was enchanted by them and Rocky soon got tired of passing messages between Flower and Moonbeam about art.)
“Rocky? What do you have?” Aang demanded, immediately clocking the girl’s suspicious behavior.
“A knife!” Rocky cackled, showing off a flash of silver.
“NO!” Rocky took off with Aang right on her heels. “Stop running!”
“You can’t take it! It’s a birthday present!” She shouted over her shoulder with a wild grin.
“Who would give you a knife?!” Aang demanded, trying to use airbending to out pace her, but she burrowed in a move she learned from the Gopher and backtracked on him.
“Don’t know!” Rocky beamed, popping out of the earth a ways off. “Mom said it was from a friend of hers!” She waved the knife in the air, the pearl handled dagger glinting in the light. “Pretty cool, huh?”
Aang was too far away to see it well or make out the words on the blade.
He was too distracted by the dangerous game of keep away to find anything weird about it at all.
The Fire Nation ship was back in the waters near Cub and River’s village. It happened every few months. The same small ship sailed close enough to see the town and then backed off. It was terrifying the first time it happened after the men of the village had left. Cub prepared for battle, but it never got closer. Every time it appeared it came close enough to be seen, but too far to be a threat.
Cub thought it might be psychological warfare. It made River furious whenever she saw the ship. But it never once made a move against the village.
Aang was showing Rocky one of the braids that River taught him. Moonbeam was happy to volunteer her hair for the process, though it would have been better if she’d been the one teaching Rocky since she knew how to braid better than he did. (Alas, Aang was as clean shaven as ever.) Rocky wanted to surprise her dad with new hairstyles for her and her mom for a day.
Aang’s hands moved easily, pausing at times when he over thought a loop and lost his place.
“You’re going to fast again, Cloud.” Rocky complained.
“Sorry, Rocky, when I try to slow down I mess up.” Aang said. “You good, Moonbeam?”
“Yes, and don’t worry if you mess up too badly, I’m sure I can untangle it.” She adjusted. “Also, I think you are too worried about pulling my hair. You can do it tighter.”
“Will do-” Aang flickered.
“What the frack?!” Rocky jumped in alarm. Moonbeam whipped around, her glowing hair in disarray.
“Cloud?!” Thin tendrils of light, which she’d slowly stopped wrapping around them as the years rolled by, unfurled from her, reaching for him.
Aang blinked a couple of times and looked down at his hands. “That was wei-”
Cloud vanished from the dreamscape.
And the Avatar opened his eyes.