Chapter 52 - My SI Stash #52 - In A Darker World by Gin-San needs his parfait (Avatar: Last Airbender) (1/2)

-Canon is pretty f_u_c_k_e_d lol~ Kaito the SI is pretty fascinating.

ε=ε=ε=ε=ε=ε=┌(;￣◇￣)┘

Sypnosis: SI/OC insert. The whole rebirth shebang never really interested me, until I was involved. As a waterbender during the Siege of the North with the memories of my past life, things go quite differently than in canon. Some things though, stay exactly (frustratingly) the same. Fair warning: Not much humour, mostly dark themes, but I wouldn't call it angst...

Rated: T

Words: 133K

Posted on: fanfiction.net/s/12572582/1/In-A-Darker-World (Gin-San needs his parfait)

PS: If you're not able to copy/paste the link, you have everything in here to find it, by simply searching the author and the story title. It sucks that you can't copy links on mobile (*´ー｀*)

-I'll be putting the chapter ones of all the fanfics mentioned, to give you guys a sample if you wan't more please do go to the website and support the author! (And maybe even convince them to start uploading chapters in here as well!)

Chapter 1

The whole rebirth shebang never really interested me, until I was involved. I never thought much about what happens after. I'd hoped I'd get another chance at getting things right, sure, but I figured it'd be in my own world. Or at the very least the same universe.

The beginning was bleak, cold, ever cold, and filled with long periods of unconsciousness.

The language was rather tricky to master, although I picked up on it quickly enough to understand basic concepts such as food, mother, father and naptime. Only then did I find out that my parents had named me Kaito.

It took me what I think passes for about six months to figure out where I was.

It's not every day that someone mentions the Avatar. The Last Airbender Avatar. Took me a while to wrap my head around that one. What a bedtime story, eh?

There is a tradition in the Northern Watertribe for when a child first starts walking. Testing the limits, so to speak. No one could have known that it was not the lure of sweets that got me walking, but instead the burning d_e_s_i_r_e to move of my own volition. That they were there was a fortunate addition and the reason for my choice in direction. To be autonomous once more when all I could do for the longest time was to rely on the two people known to me as my new set of parents. (As though such a thing could ever be exchangeable.)

No one could understand how it felt to finally be able to run except for perhaps someone who had been chained for a very long time. Stumbling as my gait was, I was not surprised to find my face well-acquainted with the icy ground that was our home. But the understanding that I lived on thick ice brought to me a completely new feeling of understanding the world as a large unknown. I could now choose to view it as an adventure, or a scary thing.

Having been terrified my entire early life and finally running again after so long, I decided to leave that fear behind.

I could not live terrified of being dropped at any moment, of the incompetence of others and their power over my life so long as I remained this small any longer. I would take the reigns into my own hands so to speak.

Another astounding revelation was that I'm apparently a bender. Which is just super cool. It's like a superpower and who doesn't want one of those? The only people who want to be normal are those who've never been average or ordinary.

Bending, in a way that I can't explain very well, is like extending your senses beyond your body and imposing your will upon the element. For this, you need to be able to not only grasp what the element is at its base, but also merge with it, until you and the element are one.

I found out about my ability through pure chance. (Although I admit, I have started to believe in higher powers. Rebirth will do that to you.) I was toddling along behind my mother, on our way to the market, when the bridge we were crossing suddenly cracked. Through a miracle, my mother was thrown forwards, to safety, but I? Well, I got ready to experience the worst cold of my so far short life.

I plunged into the water, icy cold invading my clothes, freezing my brain for a second. I began to paddle, remembering how to swim, even though my body didn't, but the furs I wore proved too heavy. I admit, I panicked. Maybe this was the universe telling me, 'nu-uh, you might've slipped through the cracks once, but we're rectifying the mistake'.

Part of my mind rebelled violently against the possibility. Why the f_u_c_k was I made to drown here? F_u_c_k, no. I'd never been very complacent, so if I could do something to change things, I wouldn't bloody well start lying down and taking it now!

Something that is clear to me now, in retrospect, is that bending water is both calm and the storm. You have to be both. Yin and Yang, ebb and flow. Knowing I'd drown in the next minute, if I didn't do anything, I was both accepting of the fact and not.

And that was when I felt it. My d_e_s_i_r_e not to drown, my acknowledgement of the possibility, it played together in a way that allowed me to realise that if I just twisted right here, pulled and then pushed, I'd live. So, I gathered the water beneath me with sluggish motions, swept my arms low, then high.

I was catapulted out of the water and sailed in a tall arc to safety.

The landing was painful on the ice. I skidded a few metres on my shoulder and leg, sliding farther than I'd have liked, wet as I was, before thumping against an obstacle. My mother was with me instantly, frantic and calling for a healer. Then I passed out.

Later that night, when I was shivering in my furs near the hearth, my father Hotaka told me a waterbending Master would visit in a few days, to see if I could be taught. He was clearly very proud. It set off a warm feeling beneath my b_r_e_a_s_tbone. I never even thought about how my parents felt towards me, because their love was evident, but in that moment, I realised that, just like in my old life, I would strive to please my parents. It made me feel all warm and cosy when they were proud of me, and I decided I wanted more of that. I would take what happiness I could get in this life. No take-backsies.

Now, not to hate on a clearly well-respected and intelligent individual, but from what I remember from the series, Katara's impression of Pakku being a prick was entirely correct. He didn't like me much, I could see it from the start.

He thought I'd be a true brat, too young to take anything seriously. He wasn't wrong. While I was aware of social graces more than any child my age should be, I was happy to ignore them.

For Pakku, there was also the fact to consider that I managed to form a water tendril at first try when he asked it of me. I promptly used it to splash about, just to spite him. He smothered it with a few gestures to calm the water, like a dignified individual. He just looked at me very sternly, but I was unrepentant.

In the following years he would try and beat my insolence out of me, but never succeed. What can I say? I'm stubborn, it's part of my charm. It all comes down to enjoying myself here. Enjoying life before it ends (again).

He had two other students who were older than myself, one close to becoming a Master himself, Hiraku, the other about ten years old, Katsuo. Neither liked me much. I was too unruly, too disrespectful without being disrespectful and they hated that Pakku seemed to tolerate it, even though he didn't go easy on me. They got over it. Mostly.

My mother tried desperately to teach me manners and all that jazz, and I did learn. Well enough to get away with most of my cheekiness; well enough to get away with it with Pakku, so I must've done alright. Though my father outwardly despaired with my mother, he secretly thought I was hilarious. He was a warrior and they are all about discipline and honour et cetera, but they know how to have fun.

Sometimes, Hotaka would bring me with him to training and teach me some moves, or let me watch some spars. I was pretty good at whatever he taught me. Partly because as a bender, I had to be able to control my body perfectly, but also because I remember some of the Aikido I did back when I was still in my fist life. His buddies liked me just as well as my father and their brats were of a mind with myself when it came to annoying the shit out of stern-faced council elders and the like. Soon I led small attacks on the council chambers, utilising their skill-sets to get the most hilarity out of our pranks.

All in all, life was good.