Teacher and Healer

Bright sun, cool breeze wafting through the open doors of the dojo. The morning had been beautiful and perfect for lessons. His firebenders had practically been able to breathe the warmth in the air, the energy it spread through their veins. Most of children boasted about the "magic" of the sun all through lessons and about how good it was making them, no matter how much he tried to tell them that was only part of the equation. But the dark clouds had rolled in on the tail of that wonderful breeze, cutting lessons in the yard short, dousing everyone from head to toe. Of course, none of his students stayed wet. Firebenders and all. They'd tried to help the others dry off as well, but he'd told them to wait patiently in the main hall for lunch and that they could go home only once the rain let up. He'd dried off the rest of his mother's students himself, one by one.

"Thank you, Akio!" The last little girl beamed up a him, before heading off to get lunch herself. Between his firebending students and his mother's martial arts students, they had ten children in the place today, and due to the last minute monsoon, they were feeding all of them lunch. His mother would love it, that much he knew. She missed the rambunctiousness and energy of having children around. It was why she'd started taking martial arts students, more and more the older he grew.

A long, gurgling groan came from his stomach. Fortunately the children were long gone ahead of him to lunch, so no one heard a sound except him. But this meant he'd be taking lunch with them and he wasn't sure how much he liked the sound of that. Lunch was ordinarily meditative, time alone in companionable silence that allowed his emotions to reach equilibrium again.

"Oh well."

Akio headed down to the main hall and entered to an enthusiastic cheer from his firebending students, who waved for him to sit with them.

"Master! Maaaaaaasteeeeeeeeer! Over here!"

Part of him wanted to give in to an evil streak and pointedly sit by himself, so he took a seat at an empty table. Nearby, his mother's chuckle rang out as all three of his firebenders picked up their food and filled in the table to either side of him. Suo, the only girl of the three, set her bowl down in the spot beside him and stood again, only to return with a bowl of rice and a bowl of soup for him.

"Suo, you're such a suck up!" one of the boys taunted.

She stuck her tongue out in response. "I was being nice! Not my fault you two are as rude as you are stupid!"

"All right. Enough. You'll have plenty of time to work out your differences in the sparring ring tomorrow. Lunch is not a time for all of that..." Akio said sternly, taking up his bowl of rice and his chopsticks. Especially not during his lunch if it meant he would have to break it up.

"Master Fan! Will you tell us one of your stories?" Akio looked up from his food to see it was the little girl from before who asked. His mother sat down among her students at the table adjacent to his, giving a smile to all the children.

"What would you like to hear about?" she asked.

"Ooh ooh! Tell us a story about monsters you've fought! Like dragons!" a boy asked.

"Dragons don't exist stupid!" another girl taunted.

"Children, you heard what Akio said. The same goes for you. Meals are not an occasion for fighting," she said, in the voice he so loved. It was no mystery how Fan managed to catch his father's eye. She was gentle, every gesture like the light touch of the wind on a summer's afternoon. She never once raised her voice when chiding or issuing discipline but somehow firm. It defied expectation that someone like her could command respect, yet she always did. Respect and love.

"How did you get all those burn scars if you never killed a dragon?" the boy asked with a puzzled tilt of his head.

Akio fought to keep his muscles relaxed, avoiding any outward show of emotion. For a moment, he was so focused on remaining normal that he hadn't realized he paused in his eating, awaiting his mother's response.

"I'm afraid it was nothing so glorious and heroic as fighting a dragon," she said with an easy chuckle, "just an accident."

The accident that had sent them away from his father and sister. The accident that had almost killed his mother, leaving her disfigured and crippled. She'd lost most of her arm, from the elbow down, and her hearing in one ear as well as some of her looks to the fire he couldn't control. She would never tell a soul, afraid for her son's feelings. But in his heart, he had reconciled with the guilt years ago.

Akio resumed his eating. "An accident maybe, but something certainly more heroic than fighting a dragon. She saved her son from killing his own sister."

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Shaking. Her body was shaking. It wasn't from the cold; she'd only just emerged from the warmth of the hut. So why was she shaking so much. No... someone had shaken her.

Mei Li blinked a couple of times, and a face staring back at her finally resolved through the haze in her mind. She didn't know this girl's face, but whoever she was, she looked frantic, desperate.

"P-please! My mom! She needs help!"

This girl was shivering. She wasn't dressed for the cold, nor was she from the Water Tribe. A foreigner. A foreigner demanding help.

Of course, she must have assumed from my clothing... Mei Li thought numbly. Can... do I have to be somewhere...? Is this a patient of mine? No... I still don't know this girl. What do I do...?

"Your mother... what's wrong with her exactly?" Mei Li asked. She internally cringed at how distant her voice sounded and hoped the girl just thought it from fatigue, or was too distressed to notice.

Pull yourself together. She needs help, whoever she is. She found you and this is your duty. You're a healer first. Have to be a healer first... always.