This fight was different.

They did not know that. It had been brewing for a long time, but both had assumed it would be small. Not even worth remembering. That was how their relationship worked. Fights came and went, but they always found each other again.

This was different.

It had started out simple enough. One of the young ones, a daughter, caused some trouble for herself. Her mother dragged the timid child home and reprimanded her forcefully. She could have hurt some one out there! She could have killed herself!

In walks the avatar. He was neither blind nor deaf, and had knowledge of the ruckus his little girl had created. However his reproach was very different.

Katara looks up, throws their baby at him, thinking he will do a better job. She has more important things to take care of anyways. What she hears instead is laughter and excited voices. Instead of chided her, that damned monk is encouraging her! Begging with wide eyes to hear her wonderful adventure!

Angry, she huffs over to him. Scolds both of them, and sends the girl to her room. The happiness the little one had just expressed melted, and she slinks away. Her father, seeing this state of distress, stops her. He looks back at his wife. He scolds the water bender. Their daughter is just having a little fun, she has a right to, he says.

The woman in question bristles, and commands the young one away. The child sprints out the door, hoping that her crazed mother doesn't yell at her for going back outside. Meanwhile, the man turns towards her mother, questioning her angrily. Words become quicker, sharper, thicker. They heat the air and make the inescapable wind colder.

Then the shouting starts.

She could have hurt someone in the village! She didn't hurt anyone! She could have hurt herself! She didn't hurt anything! She has costs us supplies we won't get back! We still have enough, I could get more if we really needed it! The villagers needed to see her reprimanded! The villagers don't give a owl mouse's hoot about her getting in trouble!

She was being immature! It was too dangerous to let her continue!

She was being a child! She was enjoying the freedom of childhood! Then it got louder.

"She's only eight! She has plenty of childhood left!" She spat. "Everyone needs a childhood! Without it, they'll never be an adult!" He responded.

"Why are you do hung up on this spirits damned childhood? It is really so important that she doesn't get in a good hollering just to save her some childhood?" She screamed. Her hands were flying this way and that, water sloshing about everywhere.

"So that she has one! You of all people should know how important one is! You barely even had one!" The avatar was gripping a pot so hard it was cracking.

"HOW DARE YOU? Of course I know how important a fucking childhood is! You of all people know how sensitive about my mother I am!" She cursed.

"IT'S NOT MY FAULT YOUR MOTHER IS DEAD!"

A pause. Realization is etched across his face.

"Oh but isn't it?" she says darkly. "If your weren't off pretending to have a childhood with the ghosts of your friends in that iceberg, my mother would still be alive, wouldn't she?"

Moments later, Katara realized what she said.

He was out the door. The igloo shook with his fury.

She raced outside, tears streaming down her face, hands outstretched towards him.

She couldn't find him, not anywhere in the blank canvas of snow. She screams.

Her children run back home, all shouting nervously. The eldest daughter has the troublemaker by the hood, and the little one hides from the accusing faces of her siblings. Together they find their mother, sobbing into the snow. The girl is afraid to touch her.

The eldest children shooed the little ones inside. The oldest, a boy named Tenzin, sets off to find their missing father. His face is dark. The oldest daughter tries to hold her mother, but the water bender shakes her away. The igloo is closed behind the faces of the children.

This fight is different. Perhaps this time he won't go looking for her.