AN: I've been thinking about the upcoming sequel of ATLA lately, and an idea struck. This is just a very short story to help explore my ideas around the Aang-Korra-Tenzin relationship triangle. This is also my very first fic, so any reviews and comments are much obliged! Thank you for reading! :)

Disclaimer: Avatar: The Last Airbender is copyrighted by Nickelodeon and Bryke and is not mine.

He Lives...

It amazed him how similar they really were. This girl was nothing like the man he remembered, and yet now every time he saw her face he was overwhelmed with a vague sense of familiarity.

Upon their first meeting, he couldn't see it – didn't even try. This girl, so self assured and headstrong, was brash and impatient like a rampant river. His father had been carefree and gentle like an autumn breeze.

Yet, he couldn't deny the things he did see.

"Sifu?"

The man turned to see the very woman he had been thinking about approach him. He couldn't help but compare her fluid gait to his father's light footsteps.

"I've been meditating for an hour. When are you going to stop sitting around and actually teach me some airbending?" the young Avatar grated.

"Sitting around is not the same as reflecting."

The aggravated young woman glowered at her mentor as the older airbender lowered his head sagely and resumed delving into his own thoughts. With a soft huff, she dropped down beside him. Her shoulders drooped as her earlier ire left her in a long sigh.

"Look, Sifu Tenzin, I know this is probably weird for you, training your dad's reincarnation and all –"

"Posture."

The woman blinked, caught off by the man's frank, but gentle interruption. She scrunched her nose before proceeding to straighten her back and relax her arms across her lap, mimicking her mentor's stance.

"But, as I was saying, I hope you'll learn to see me - Not just the Avatar."

He looked down at her then. He looked into the steel-blue eyes staring up at him, and for the first time, saw the woman as Korra – not as his father's spiritual successor.

She looked away and continued. "I know he's gone, and now I'm here in his stead. We share a thousand lives, but I'm not him."

Her eyes met his again, piercing him as she her voice softened with conviction.

"We share the Avatar Spirit, but he lives in you."

At that, she got up and retreated back into the temple.

Tenzin said nothing as he let her words circle in his head. He let out a long sigh as a slow, wary smile turned his lips.

It amazed him how similar they really were.