Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life--Omar Khayyam

Today

"He's your favorite and I hate you both!" Kya slammed her door and her voice echoed, striking Aang as harsh and target-true as lightning.

Katara was there in the next moment, her hand on Aang's arm and then drifting up to cup his face. "Love, she doesn't mean it."

"She does, Katara. It's what she thinks." His grey eyes were devastated as they tracked from their daughter's door to his wife's face.

"Aang."

"I spend more time with him, I know I do. Training him. I feel such an urgency as if, as if.."

Katara hushed him. She knew what he felt, they'd talked of it many times before. He felt as if he needed to teach Tenzin everything as soon as possible, as if his time with their child would be too short to impart everything Aang had to teach him not just about airbending but about the Air Nation as well; the pressure, the pressure and this internal sense of time ticking down made him wildly anxious and too focused. "I know what you fear, sweetie. But you spend time with Bumi and Kya. Do you think I would allow you to be absent with our other children just because they aren't airbenders?"

Aang shook his head slowly. "You'd never let me get away with that, Sifu Katara."

That made her laugh and the knot she'd felt in her chest at his sadness eased. "Precisely, Pupil Aang. And you would never let yourself either. She is a typical girl her age and typical girls her age get jealous of their siblings and throw tantrums. But typical or not, she knows better than to speak to anyone so disrespectfully. By the spirits, her father is a monk!"

Aang finally laughed and tension ebbed, mostly, from his long, lean frame. Catching his wife's hand, he turned to press a kiss into her palm. "Alas, she has her mother's temper."

Katara gave him a look, her smile smug. "And don't think I'm not proud of that fact. Now, I'm going to have a word with her about this."

"Maybe I-'

"No. You'll melt into a puddle at her feet. You'll be giving her a ride on an air scooter and promising her something sweet for dinner to dry up the tears in her big blue eyes."

Aang slid an arm around Katara's waist. She was warm and strong and everything he ever needed. "I hate when blue eyes cry."

Her smile was indulgent and she pressed it to his answering one, brief and sweet. "You hate when anyone cries."

Not that Katara was immune to their daughter's unhappy face. Kya might look more like her mother but so much of that free spirit belonged to Aang. Unfortunately, Aang wasn't wrong and Kya had her mother's own temper. So, Katara steeled herself when she went into the almost-a-teenager's room.

Kya didn't look up from where she'd flung herself across her bed.

"Kya," Katara murmured and waited. And waited. And waited.

Until the silence broke with a flinging of a long body as Kya whipped around. Her blue eyes were wet with temper tears, her cheeks flushed. "He does love Tenzin more! He does!"

When Katara did not answer, but stared down into the angry-sad face, Kya huffed. "Mom. You know it. He spends so much time with him. He takes him on trips. He," tears, not just temper now, started streaming and her voice caught. "He could teach me to waterbend but he doesn't even try. He just has you do it. Bumi and me want to learn about the Air Nation. We're descended from them too!"

Katara's arms were quick to circle around her girl as she settled next to her on the bed. One hand soothed through the tangle of dark hair, pushing it back from the face that burrowed into her. "Oh, sweetheart. Your father loves you so much more than I can ever, ever tell you. But even though he was the last airbender before Tenzin and he is the Avatar, he's still a man and no man is perfect."

"I just-ju-just wanted to go with him. With them. I just, I just-why won't he take me too?"

How to explain that these trips with Tenzin were not just for fun and that they were dangerous. Aang didn't feel safe taking more than one of their children at a time, especially not with Tenzin so small. And how to explain that she'd messed up as well? Messed up by not insisting Aang take each of their children on solo trips, no matter his fear or his schedule. "He can't watch you both, love, not and be sure you're both safe. But you're right, you are, that I teach you but that is not because your Papa does not want to. It is because I want to. I want to share this with you like I got to share it with your father and Granpa Pakku." Katara bent to press a kiss into her daughter's hair. "I've been selfish, Kya."

"No, you haven't." Kya sniffled and peered up at Katara with swollen, teary eyes. "You're the best Mom ever."

Katara laughed then, her own eyes feeling teary. "Oh, how I want to be the best mom ever for you and your brothers. But I make mistakes. And, don't tell anyone, but so does your dad. But, love, you and your brothers and me-we're his whole world, it all spins around us. He hates that he hurt you. Hates it everytime he leaves without us."

"Do you really think so?"

"My sweet girl, are you going to pretend you don't know why I'm in here instead of him?"Katara watched her daughter try to suppress a smile, her light blue eyes-caught between Katara's own bright and Aang's grey-went shrewd.

"No?"

At that Katara's grin flashed and she squeezed her smart girl tight. "It's good to know your strengths but your papa is not an enemy who's weaknesses should be exploited." Katara shook her head, looking down at that beautiful face and those too-knowing eyes. "You are going to be so dangerous, Kya. You know he would have begged forgiveness and promised you anything." Katara cupped her daughter's face; she could already see what a striking young woman she would be, the way her face was already starting to thin down. Too soon. How could it be? Just a moment ago she was just a wish. "But you and I also know that you hurt him terribly with what you said and you broke our family rules about how we speak to one another."

Kya looked down then, shame so alive on her face Katara could practically feel the burn of it in her own chest. "Mom. I-"

"No." Katara cut her off gently. "You don't owe me an apology as I'm not the one you said you hated."

Kya looked up, her eyes suddenly horror-struck. "I didn't mean that. I didn't mean it. I didn't-"

"Ssh. I know that and your father does too, logically. But the words still hurt his heart. It hurts that you could even think that for long enough to say it."

Kya's eyes filled again so Katara leaned forward and kissed her forehead. Hurting Aang's feelings was akin to kicking a koala-otter pup. He'd never lost that quality, that purity of spirit that made it sting so much worse to make his face crumple in pain. Noone was immune to the terrible pit of despair when you realized you'd been unfair and wounded him. "When you're ready, turtle-duck."

Kya sniffed and rolled her eyes, but she held on a little longer. "I'm almost 12, Mom. Dad was saving the world at that age and noone was calling him a turtle-duck."

Katara nodded solemnly, as if conceding the point. But she said, equally solemnly, "Though, your aunt Toph did call him Twinkle Toes."

When Kya snorted a laugh, Katra smiled again. "So, Twinkle Nose? Web-Toes? What should we call the waterbending daughter of Avatar Twinkle Toes?"

Kya giggled again and squeezed Katara hard. "Turtle-Duck is fine. In private." Then, she took a breath and released her mother. Squaring her shoulders, she looked at her door. "I'd rather be gored by a Saber-Tooth Moose-Lion than see Dad sad."

Katara immediately volleyed back. "I'd rather be stung by a horde of vulture-wasps than see Aang sad."

Kya's mouth firmed and her eyebrows drew down. "I'd rather eat a two headed fish than see Dad sad."

"I'd rather sleep on a-"

The door opened and the man himself was there, staring pointedly at his two favorite ladies. He frowned lightly. "You had better not be playing Rather than Sad Dad Avatar."

Kya giggled, giving herself away while Katara rose to her feet. "Oh, no," she shook her head, "we definitely were not playing our favorite family game." Her hand drifted against his as she passed, their eyes meeting in a speaking glance before she slipped out. She pulled the door shut behind her.

Left alone, Kya's smile faded and so did her father's. They stared at each other for a long, full moment. Aang lifted a hand to rub at the back of his head, about to speak, when Kya blurted, "I don't hate you, Dad. I love you so much!" She threw herself at him and Aang caught her up, a little burst of wind bringing her all the way up into his arms.

"Kya. I love you too, brave girl."

"I'm so sorry I said that. I won't ever again. I promise!"

"Good. Good." He squeezed her close and buried his face in her hair, staving off tears. That was the last thing she needed. Reluctantly, he pulled back and sat her down. Then he knelt in front of her. "Now, I owe you an apology. I am sorry I made you feel neglected or like I loved you less because you are not an airbender. I love all that you are Kya. Your mother," Aang paused and took a breath, steadying his voice, "your mother is the only woman I ever loved. She gave me a family before I knew that I had lost mine. And then she gave me you. And you are a delight and a surprise and more than I had ever dared to dream of. Just the thought of you changed the world and created Republic City." Aang carefully wiped a tear from Kya's cheek. His children all knew that Katara's vision of their future family was responsible for the world they now lived in, where benders of every nation and non-benders of every nation could live and work and love together. "If I could choose, I would spend every day at Ember Island with my family, playing pranks and eating and flying and swimming."

Kya smiled, crooked and gleeful, "Mama would go crazy."

Aang sighed. "That's probably true, so we'd have to let her do something productive. But you and me? We'd play pranks from sunup til sundown. If we could."

Kya smiled at the pretend possibility, then placed a hand on her father's shoulder. "But you have responsibilities and so does Mama and so do Bumi and me. And Tenzin." She was slow to include her baby brother. They all knew his responsibilities. "But most of all we have a responsibility to love and help each other and to make the world a better, kinder place. I'm sorry, Papa."

"I'm sorry, too, sweetie. And I love you more than I love rice balls."

"More than you live riding elephant koi?"

"Definitely."

"More than you love Momo?"

"Well, let's not get carried away." Aang tickled her and she dissolved into laughter. This, this he realized wouldn't last much longer. But for now, just for now, he had the peal of her laugh and the shine of her eyes and the sturdy, vibrant life of his daughter-his daughter!his and Katara's daughter!- in his arms.

Much later, after a squabble-laugh-filled dinner, after Katara tucked Tenzin in with stories of the water tribe and Aang told Kya about pie-throwing with Brother Gyatso, after he played pao shao with Bumi and answered letters for the Avatar while Katara whispered with their son about his desire to join the Navy-he'd be going soon, within weeks, Aang was sure-Aang watched Katara as she brushed her hair on the bench by their bed. He often did that for her, loving the way she leaned into him, the soft sighs she made as he pulled the brush through her long, dark hair. Sometimes they'd talk of the day's events, of their worries for their three children, of plans for the next day or next year. But tonight he watched her in silence and enjoyed the graceful bend of her arm, the line of her leg curled back under the bench on which she sat. He watched and he waited for her to rise, then he snuffed most of the candles lighting the room with a motion of his hand. When she slid under the light covers, he reached for her, the familiar curves of her body, supple and strong, melting into him.

"Aang?" Katara's voice was soft, that too familiar. His heart sped at the breathy sound of the up-lilting question.

"Mm. Yeah, forever-girl?" He nuzzled against her neck, stroked his hand down, molding the soft material of her sleep shirt to the dip in her waist, the flair of her hip.

"What-what are you doing?"

"After all this time and three children, you mean to tell me I need to explain?"

When she shoved his shoulder he laughed, nipped her neck playfully. "Mm. I want my wife tonight." He made a small dissatisfied hum against her skin. "Want is too small a word. Need isn't right either. I-Katara, I-"

Katara's mouth found his, finishing with sensual depth a sentence Aang couldn't have found the words for. "Be with me, husband."

After, her body slick with sweat and trembling against his, he held her tight, tighter. "Thank you," he whispered, voice rough and breathing still ragged.

"Aang," Katara half-laughed his name and leaned back to look at him. But her humor drifted at the intensity in his eyes. "Aang, what is it?"

"For Kya. For today. For Bumi and Tenzin and every kiss and every touch and every time we laugh and every single time you've scolded me. Thank you for being my family. For building a family with me." He took a shuddering breath, tipped his forehead to hers.

Katara lifted one hand to his cheek. "Aang, you're starting to scare me."

"No, no," he caught her hand, turned it so he could seal a kiss into her palm. "This isn't it, that fear that I won't have enough time. There could never be enough time with you, Katara. With our children. I love you all so much. I love you. Thank you for penguin sledding with me. Thank you for-"

Katara kissed him, quick and hard, cutting off the words that were making her heart race. "Aang. You really are scaring me."

He squeezed her hard, smiling incongruously to Katara's way of thinking. "I'm sorry. It's just today."

"Today?"

Aang nodded. "Yeah. Today I made love with my wife. Today I made my daughter laugh after she said she hated me. Today Tenzin fell off the air scooter for the thousandth time. Today Bumi was still here, talking about joining the navy. Today Appa flew with another sky bison. Today we ate papaya and you hate papaya and you pretended you didn't. And it's all possible because of today."

Katara was smiling, affectionate and bemused. Her husband-philosophical, powerful, legendary-was the sweetest, most confusing man. "Are you trying to sound like Iroh? You and Zuko have never quite got the hang of it. Today is possible because of today?"

Aang's smile was all the things she'd ever loved about him, glowing, glowing at her. "Yes. Today made today possible. Twenty-two years ago today you made this all possible. Today is the day I stopped being the boy in the iceberg."