#yangchen: *is falling for kavik*

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

Wan: So what do you think is a defining feature of an Avatar? Roku: Unwavering duty towards leading humanity into the light? Yangchen, thinking of Gun: Nah. Korra: Our smile? Aang: I think that is a good one. Kuruk: No, I think it's that we're all a bit.....no, extremely petty at times. Kyoshi: True that. Korra: Ok I can't disagree. Yangchen: Yup. Haha, I remember the time I was still so upset with Kavik while on the job. I blew hot hair into his ear to mess with him. His ears were so red! Wan/Roku/Korra/Aang/Kuruk: ??????!!!! Kyoshi: That's not being petty, that's just flirting. I mean it is a bit petty, but wow the flirting. Yangchen: I wasn't flirting. Kyoshi: Take it from someone who would get that regularly from Rangi during my horse stance make-out sessions. That's some romantic/sexually charged shit right there girl. Yangchen, supreme scholar but also local idiot:

[st4rdust-days]

Junjinta: why do you both look so sad?

Kavik, solemnly staring at the ground: you'll have to sit down for this one, bud

Junjinta, sits: ???

Yangchen, sighing: the bench is freshly painted

[aether-link]

Seeing air bender tattoos fully feels so scandalous. This is probably what Kavik felt like when he saw Yangchen in that one scene 😳

[creampuffqueen]

darlin', oh, you see i've never felt this way before

Yangvik Week Day 6: Jealousy

Summary: Yangchen knows that Kavik is handsome. She just didn't expect to feel so possessive when other people notice the same thing.

Word Count: 3811

CW: sex jokes, innuendos, implied/referenced sex, people being very openly thirsty

(will be posted to ao3 later)

~~~~

The Western Air Temple still smells like home. 

Sitting on the edge of one of the large stone platforms that form the temple, Yangchen takes a deep breath in, the thin mountain air settling deep into her lungs, wrapping its way around her heart. It’s still the same as she’s always remembered, the same she’s longed to breathe throughout her journeys across the world.

There’s a holy day coming up, the main reason Yangchen has come. The temple elders reached out to ask her to lead the ceremonies, to provide the blessings and prayers for the temple. 

Yangchen never minds giving blessings. But it’s a special honor to be asked to do so for her home.  

It’s early, but the temple is already full of life. Yangchen herself has just finished with a dawn meditation session, and now everywhere around her is bustling with activity. Brooms sweeping across the floors, nearby bison grumbling for their morning treats, nuns chatting as they carry supplies from one corner of the temple to another. 

And down on the floor below, a sound that brings a grin creeping onto Yangchen’s face: the gasps and giggles of a group of children utterly enthralled by something. She’s pretty sure she might know why.

Pushing herself to standing, Yangchen grabs her glider to pop it open with a satisfying snap. Her hand settles over the worn wood, fingers falling into a practiced grip. Leaping directly into the open air is as thrilling as always, her body naturally knowing which way to turn to catch the familiar air currents. 

She supposes she could just fly down to the next floor, letting her glider and her airbending catch her fall. But where would the fun be in that? She can’t resist making a few extra turns and spins, reveling in all the free space to fly around. It’s so nice to use her glider somewhere that’s designed for it. 

Eventually, though, she lets herself drop from the air until she’s on solid footing once more, landing with soft feet and fluttering robes, glider staff falling closed once more. She wants to see what all the commotion is about. 

The sight she finds brings a broad smile to her lips: a group of young girls, all around the ages of six to eight, stand gathered before a waterbender, fascinated as they watch him weave a complicated pattern of strings between his fingers. 

Kavik, for his part, looks absolutely thrilled to have amassed such an audience. His hands twist, strings looping over his knuckles, until he brings them apart to show off the design he’s created. 

“This shape is called ‘the polecat-wolverine’.” The little girls ooh and ahh, eyes wide. 

Glancing around, she notices that a few more nuns have gathered to watch, likely just as intrigued about the noise. The approaching holy day means that Air Nomads from all over have returned to the temple to help prepare. Rather than just children and the elderly, nuns of all ages are present - some of them that Yangchen even recognizes from her youth. 

It’s rare that outsiders visit for the holy days. Not that they’re particularly discouraged, but because most people from other nations are put off by the idea of hours-long meditation sessions, early hikes to sacred sites around the temple, and chants that seem to go on forever. 

But Kavik wanted to come. Yangchen told him she was headed to the Western Air Temple for a few days, and he’d packed his bags the same night.

“What?” He’d asked when she looked at him curiously, taking care to give her the most punchable expression he could manage, “You thought I wouldn’t come with you?”

Well, clearly he’s been made to feel welcomed. He untangles the string and starts on a new shape, blue eyes focused. The girls lean in, not wanting to miss a single loop. Yangchen remains off to the side, unable to contain her smile at the scene. 

A few more nuns take a pause from their tasks to join in. Though they stand near Yangchen, they don’t seem to take notice of her. 

At the temple, she’s just another airbender. Her orange robes and tattoos make her blend in, not stand out. It’s a rather nice change of pace, to not be the center of attention for once. She’s happy to let that task fall on Kavik’s shoulders for the time being. After all, he seems to be enjoying it. 

“He’s so sweet with the children,” One of the nearby nuns comments.

Kavik finishes with the new shape, presenting it to the gathered girls with an easy smile. “This figure is ‘the two boats’. See how the string forms the two men? Two men, two boats.”

“Another!” A younger girl trills from the crowd. She’s a tiny thing, clinging to the robes of another, taller child. The girls cheer, joining their sister in her request. Kavik looks only too happy to oblige them. 

“He’s good with that string - I bet he’d be good at weaving.” The same nun murmurs to her friend, “Perhaps we should try and get him on the loom while he’s here.”

“Yeah, I bet he’s good with his hands,” Her friend replies, giggling. “Look how fast he can move his fingers; I’d like to see those in action.”

The first nun elbows her, laughing. “Tsewang, you can’t just say that!”

That only makes Tsewang giggle more. “Like you’re any better! Don’t think I didn’t catch you checking out his backside during breakfast!”

Oh. Yangchen realizes with a sudden, uncomfortable clarity, They think that Kavik is attractive.

She can’t blame them, really. It’s one of the first things she noticed about him: that the thief caught red-handed in her room was almost unfairly good-looking. 

Still, she finds herself with a strong desire to move away until she can’t hear the rest of this conversation. She can’t blame them for thinking Kavik is attractive. But that doesn’t mean she wants to hear it said out loud. 

—

By the afternoon, she’s nearly forgotten about the whole event. There’s plenty of work to be done: the temple needs to be cleaned from top to bottom, food needs to be prepared, water needs to be hauled from the mountain spring to perfume it en masse. She may be the Avatar, but while she’s here she’s just Yangchen, and is expected to help out accordingly. 

Not that she minds, of course. She’s happy to help, happy to feel the ache in her arms from hours of hard work. Her heart will always long for the air, but for now she’s happy to feel grounded. 

She hasn’t seen much of Kavik since this morning. Abbess Dagmola put him to work in a different area of the temple, and even the most powerful being in the world is subject to the commands of her temple elder. 

Yangchen and a group of her sisters are cleaning up one of the lower floors of the temple, close enough to the canyon they can catch glimpses of others traveling through it, on their way to complete one chore or another. The floors have been swept, and now they’re up to their elbows in suds, polishing the stone until it shines. 

To pass the long hours, the nuns have been singing. Versions of prayers and chants put to a tune, old fairytale songs they remember from their childhood, even a randy sailor’s ditty one of them picked up from their time on the coast. It’s been distracting enough that Yangchen has been able to ignore the growing ache in her shoulders.

She rocks back onto her heels, wiping the sweat from her forehead and glancing around to observe their work. They’re nearly done, and then it will be on to shaking the dust from the many tapestries hung from the vaulted ceilings. 

A low whisper, punctuated by a muffled snicker, draws her attention from her sponge and bucket. A trio of nuns - slightly younger, judging by their short hair - stand perched at the edge of the floor, tittering between them like a flock of sparrowkeets. 

Yangchen heaves herself to her feet, wincing as her joints pop and groan in complaint. She wanders over to the gathering, trying to figure out just what could leave them so transfixed. One of the girls still has a dripping sponge in her hand, the water steadily soaking the hem of her robes. 

Then she peeks down into the canyon and everything becomes so much clearer.

The abbess must have sent Kavik to help with water-collecting duty. It’s the only explanation that makes sense for why he’s standing below them, knee-deep and shirtless in the mountain spring. His arms move in a smooth, unbroken circle as he bends the water into waiting buckets. Even from this distance, the motion enunciates every muscle in his back and shoulders. 

Warmth spreads through Yangchen’s stomach, face flushing hot. Judging from the expressions of the girls next to her, she’s not the only one feeling that way. The three of them are practically drooling. 

“I think I want him to just… lay on top of me…” One says aloud, eyes wide. The other two laugh and shove her, at least until another speaks up.

“I don’t have any money, but I’d pay to lick the sweat off his biceps.” 

The third girl, the one with the sponge, screws up her face in distaste. “You two are nasty.”

Her sisters glance at her, unimpressed that she isn’t taking part in their game. A moment later, the girl relents with a roll of her eyes.

“His hair is cute, though. I bet it’s really soft.” She squeezes the sponge to her chest, sighing dreamily. “And those eyes…”

For some reason, it’s that statement that brings the same odd feeling back to Yangchen’s chest. She clears her throat softly, watching in amusement as the girls whip around, eyes widening as they realize they’ve just been caught slacking by Avatar Yangchen herself.

“Something interesting to see, girls?”

They scatter like leaves on the wind, dashing back to their buckets with pink-tinged faces. Yangchen can’t help the chuckle that escapes her throat.

She risks a second glance at the spring below the temple. Buckets filled, Kavik has stopped bending. He wipes the back of his hand across his forehead to clear the sweat. His other hand settles against his hip as his head tilts back, chest heaving from exertion. 

Yangchen heads back to her bucket before she can do something stupid. 

—

Dinner comes, and still the feeling remains. Yangchen ponders it as she eats her steamed buns, watching Kavik from across the table. 

As the Avatar and the Avatar’s companion, they both have seats of honor, allowed to eat with the temple elders. Kavik is the star of the conversation, entertaining everyone with the excited, intense way he tells his stories. 

She knows that Kavik is attractive. She doesn’t mind it being pointed out, really. She’s had him use it to their advantage plenty of times in the past, saving several missions just by sending him to flirt until they could sneak away. 

She doesn’t even mind the way the other nuns have been so open about their attraction and desire. It’s simply the way they do things at the temples; desire is a human emotion, nothing to be ashamed of.

Besides, she remembers her own adolescence in the Western Air Temple. Once, when she’d been about fifteen, she’d been granted a few weeks of respite after she mastered waterbending before she traveled to the Earth Kingdom to start the next portion of her training. During that time, a group of monks from the Southern Air Temple came to stay. They’d all been newly tattooed, eager to take on the world as masters.

The other girls her age had instantly declared themselves in love, which soon devolved into a competition of who could make the naughtiest joke about the young men without getting scolded by an abbess for distracting the class. Yangchen, who spent her free time writing fake letters to faker people, had neither the time nor energy to devote to desires of the heart and body. In fact, for many years she wasn’t entirely sure if she had desires of that kind. 

She did, however, manage to get in a joke about how one of the monks ‘handled his glider’ - more out of the wish to see the others laugh than for any real attraction to the man - that brought one of her sisters to tears in pure hysterics. 

So. She gets it. Really, she does. 

But that still doesn’t stop the strange feeling of… possessiveness that she’s been getting every time she spies someone eyeing Kavik up.

Even now, she can see the signs. All around are nuns surreptitiously sneaking peeks, whispering in each others’ ears ‘don’t make it obvious…’, pretending like they’re getting up for second helpings but going out of their way to pass by their table. 

A small part of her wants to just march over to Kavik’s seat and kiss him senseless, right here and right now. That’ll show them. She’s the one who gets to drag her fingers through his hair. She’s the one who gets to feel the way he moves on top of her. She’s the one who gets to experience all the other creative ways he can use his hands. 

Unfortunately, that would be bad etiquette. Not feeling too hungry any more, she settles for resting her head in her hands, listening to Kavik finish up his story between bites of food. He gets an uproarious laughter from a particularly good punchline, and his satisfied smile sends her heart fluttering. 

He catches her eye from across the table, looking to her as if to make sure she heard his clever joke. 

A different idea worms its way into Yangchen’s head. Perhaps if I show that he’s off-limits…

She smiles warmly in Kavik’s direction, crooking her finger at him in a subtle come-hither motion. He’s quick to oblige, standing up and circling the table to get to her seat.

“Do you want me to get you anything else to eat?” Clearly, he’s noticed her half-eaten plate. 

Yangchen leans in, bringing her lips closer to his ear. “No. But I would like you to come to my room tonight.”

Kavik jolts in surprise, blue eyes wide. She’s never made an advance on him in public like this. At least, not a real one.

She leans in again, warming her breath with firebending for good measure. “Midnight. Be there.”

His face turns a shade of red that Fire Nationals would be jealous of. All around, watchful eyes take in the scene: The Avatar, whispering something in her companion’s ear that’s turned him into a blushing fool, stumbling over both his words and his feet. 

Yangchen lets her smirk be seen throughout the room as Kavik makes his way back to his seat, eyes firmly affixed to the floor. The best plans always have a sprinkle of the truth.

The nuns of the Western Air Temple manage to find more interesting things to look at for the rest of dinner. 

—

Yangchen wakes up in shades, consciousness seeping into her bones with each exhale of breath. The pre-dawn light creeps through her window, casting the room in a soft, dreamlike haze. It’s so early that even the lemurs are still asleep. 

The heavy, comforting weight of Kavik’s arm is circling over her, keeping her tucked close to his chest. The bed in her quarters is only really meant for one person, but they’ve made it work. 

Under normal circumstances, she’d be rousing him awake at this time, ignoring his protesting grumbles to give him ample time to sneak back to his own lodgings. Emerging from the same room in the morning usually leads to more complications than they want to to deal with, so they do their best to avoid it. 

But this is her home. If there’s anywhere in the world that she can be seen with him by her side, really by her side, then it’s here. And, of course, there’s the fact that she did orchestrate this whole situation to specifically invite those kinds of speculations, in hopes that it might put a bit of a damper on all the ogling. 

Though she will admit, it’s a lot harder to feel threatened when the object of everyone’s desire in question just spent half the night on his knees for her. And is now tucked beside her in the bed, sleepy and warm and completely naked. 

More awake now, Yangchen lets her eyes roam over Kavik’s sleeping face. His dark hair is mussed and falling to his shoulders, and his lips stay slightly parted, letting each deep breath end with a tiny puff of air from his mouth. Her thumb comes to rest there, gently stroking across his plush lower lip. The slight touch is enough to hitch his breath, eyebrows furrowing as he begins to wake. 

Yangchen’s hand moves to his cheek, cupping his face in her palm. His eyelashes flutter, and then, slowly, his eyes begin to open, revealing those blue irises that steal her breath every time. 

“Hi there,” Kavik’s voice is low and groggy, with a slight rasp that makes Yangchen want to melt into a puddle of goo. 

He stretches, long and languid, yawning so widely that Yangchen can hear his jaw pop. His fingers tangle with those already on his cheek, bringing her hand to his mouth so he can begin to kiss his way up her arm, tracing the pattern of her tattoos. 

When his lips reach her elbow, he pulls away, landing his next kiss on her lips. “Is it time for me to leave?”

Yangchen returns his sleepy kiss with one of her own, pulling herself as close to him as she can manage. His arms wrap around her, just as eager for the closeness. “Not this morning, no.”

“Hm,” Kavik notes, voice still scratchy, “You’ve been acting clingy since yesterday. What’s going on?”

She nuzzles her face against his chest, letting the scent of him settle into her head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He just hums, leaning forward to kiss a path along the shaved portion of her hairline. Yangchen sinks into the easy affection, pressing her nose into the hollow of his throat, starting up her own trail of gentle kisses. 

However, when she reaches the opposite side of his neck, something gives her pause. Kavik, feeling her freeze, pulls away to look at her.

“Why are you looking at me with that face?”

Yangchen isn’t sure whether she should start laughing or apologizing. Laughter quickly wins out, so much so that she has to slap her hand over her mouth to muffle her giggles. Kavik’s eyebrows climb up his forehead in confusion. “What? What’s happening?”

She wriggles from his embrace to go search for a mirror. Finding one stashed away in her bag, she returns it to the bed as Kavik sits up, sheets pooling in his lap. 

Her entire body shakes with laughter as she watches his expression go from confused to concerned to horrified in a matter of seconds, eyes nearly bulging out of his head. “Yangchen, what did you do?”

On one side of his neck, an absolutely massive bruise lays, nearly the size of her closed fist. It’s undoubtedly a result of their activities last night, and even more undoubtedly Yangchen’s fault. 

She’d only meant to leave a small mark, maybe two. The kind that could be easily healed or covered up. Admittedly, she’d been a bit excited to leave some kind of physical evidence that proved Kavik was well and truly spoken for.

Okay, so she went a bit overboard.

“I look like I lost a fight to an octopus-leech!”

Yangchen rolls her eyes at that. “Oh, come on, don’t be so dramatic.” She gestures to the nearby washbasin, and the pitcher full of water sitting next to it. “Think of it as an opportunity to get some healing practice in.”

Kavik laughs in disbelief. “How did you even make one that big?”

“I don’t remember you complaining so much when I was giving it to you.”

His face flushes a delightful shade of red at that. “You’re terrible.”

It’s too easy. “Not what you said last night.”

“Can you stop-”

“Not what you were telling me to do last night!”

Rather than fall further into her trap, Kavik shuts her up by tackling her into the bed, making her shriek with laughter when his hands dig into her sides to tickle her mercilessly. 

She lets him get away with it for a few more seconds before tapping out, smacking her hand on the back of his shoulder until he relents. He stays above her, both of their chests still heaving with laughter. 

“You did this on purpose, didn’t you?” 

She reaches up to touch the bruise, biting her lip to stifle her giggles. He doesn’t flinch when her fingers rub across it, so it must look a lot worse than it feels.

“I might have.”

Kavik rolls off to the side, settling his head back onto the pillow. “Why?”

“Did you notice everyone staring after you all day?” Yangchen brings her hand to his head, combing her fingers absent-mindedly through his loose hair. 

An amused grin appears on Kavik’s face. “Avatar Yangchen, were you jealous?”

She shakes her head, but can’t find the words to deny it. “I don’t feel like sharing you.”

Kavik’s eyes soften. “You don’t have to. You know that I’m all yours.”

She supposes she does, deep down. Still, his assurance feels like a beam of sun, light and warmth spreading over her heart. 

Cupping his cheek once more, Yangchen leans in to kiss him. Kavik wraps his arms around her, pulling her tight to his chest.

When they part again for air, she holds his gaze in her own, trying to memorize every shade of blue in his eyes. There’s so many things she wants to say, words bubbling in her throat, confusing half-sentences threatening to spill out. 

She settles for what’s easiest. “I’m all yours, too.”

Kavik just smiles, like he’s already known this forever. Of course he already knows. How could he not?

Avatar Yangchen belongs to the world before anything else. Yangchen will always be the Avatar; even in death her spirit will remain to continue the cycle. She holds the world’s biggest blessing and its heaviest burden. It will always have a claim over her. 

But right here, her world is just this: the blue of Kavik’s eyes, the safety of his arms, and the love that she can feel pouring out of his very being. 

Yangchen kisses him again, and knows he can feel the way it pours from her, too.

~~~~

(a/n: idk how but my silly jokey fic ended up becoming a soft confession fic. sometimes i surprise even myself lmao)

[yell0wsalt]

Yangvik fake dating in a modern AU

Yangchen needs to buy a car and requests Kavik's assistance. Bargaining and all that. He agrees. Going through the conversations at the dealership, the salesperson assumes they're in a relationship. Rather than correct them, Yangchen holds onto Kavik's hand and leans into the shtick. It'd be easier, apparently.

So yes, they've been in a relationship for a few years now and this is one of their big purchases together as a couple!

What Yangchen didn't anticipate was that shopping around and making negotiations at the dealership takes hours.

They haven't let go of the other's hand all the while.

At the end of it all, Yangchen has a new car and thanks Kavik for all his help. They then go their respective ways for the day.

It's once they're each home alone do they think about the connection they had at the dealer. How easy it was to fall into couple-y patterns for them both. Holding hands. Smiling at each other's jokes. Building on the backstory of their relationship...

And also how none of it was real

What if it was though? What if it could be? Are they willing to put their neck out on the line, facing a potential fear of what may happen to their friendship if they voiced a certain question:

Did the other person feel it too?

[a-chuffed-floating-panda]

“Straighten your back, Kavik.” She corrected him. “You’ll end up falling asleep otherwise.”

His nose wrinkled, but did as she said. “Speaking from experience?”

“From having to wake my classmates up so that they wouldn’t get in trouble? Yes.”

--

Yangchen takes Kavik to a small monastery hidden in the Earth kingdom (Prompt: culture differences)

(Featuring a personal head canon of mine that there are multiple other temples hidden around in the world in addition to the four big temples:) )

[scribe-of-maat]

Canon Yangchen liking Kavik Moments

On Yangchen:

I'm glad you asked, @arcadialedger. Important bits bolded.

For full context, the comment above is in response to a comment I left on a post talking about an answer F. C. Yee gave in an interview. I have no issue at all with seeing Yangchen as aroace but Yee himself says that that's not what was written, even if the interpretation is valid in his eyes upon his review of his own work.

So, what WAS written, then? The Dawn of Yangchen is a 324 page book, at least the US hardcover version is, and even before the halfway point there are multiple instances of Yangchen being attraced to Kavik (and many, MANY more of Kavik being attracted to her in return but we're gonna stay on topic)

Specifically, towards the end of the chapter Falling Leaves, on page 74 of the US hardcover version, Yangchen is on the verge of one of her mental backslides into her past Avatar lives, and you know what saves her? Memories of Kavik. Her holding hands with him for a long time, her thinking he had nice teeth. It's her connection to him, fleeting as it was at that time, that was strong enough in her mind to anchor her to her reality.

Then, in the chapter Reading Leaves, on page 100 of the US hardcover version she straight up says that Kavik is "quite nice to look at". This is coupled with the shopkeeper treating them like a romantic couple the ENTIRE time.

A short time later in the chapter Making Ready, on page 115 towards the end of their private ride through the skies, Yangchen is watching Kavik love flying and says his elation makes her feel warm. And then she immediately follows this up by saying she likes things that make her feel warm.

Page 118 of the US hardcover version, Yangchen makes note of the way the sun highlights Kavik's facial features, saying he has "fine cheekbones".

That's all of Yangchen's canon Yangvik moments that were explicitly not platonic. The rest of this is gonna be me musing on the nature of fandom, so proceed at your own risk.

The original poster and the commenter I put this together for both read the book and somehow came away with the opinion that Yangchen shows no interest in anyone. Yee says he didn't write Yangchen as aroace and that somehow proves that he meant for her to be aroace.

I've already stated this before, but it bears reiterating here for emphasis: we wouldn't be having this conversation if Kavik was female or pale. Anyone who's read this far knows that characters have had massive ships launched on far less or even literally nothing if the characters tickle the fancy of That Part of fandom.

But because he doesn't, Yangchen is the Avatar people have decided is actually not interested in anyone's company. The only way you can read this book and think Yangchen doesn't show interest in anyone is if Kavik doesn't count.

[emachinescat]

A Year in (Book) Review: My 2024 Reading Journey 📚

#6 - The Legacy of Yangchen by F. C. Yee

Fantasy / Chronicles of the Avatar #4 / 336 pages / published 2023 / Finished Jan. 11

One Sentence Review: Even better than its predecessor, Legacy enriches the world and history of the Avatar world even further, ties up all loose ends, mends the rifts that were so distressing to me in the first book, expands the political complexities of the world, and gives all characters a satisfying ending.

Favorite Quotes

"Everyone wanted to write history, but there was only so much ink to go around."

*

"Maybe the world, blithely dancing along the precipice, needed to know what it was like to fall."

*

"You are so deep in my pocket, you're covered in lint."

*

"The true mind could weather illusions without being lost. The true heart could touch poison without being harmed."

*

"The work would wait for you, no matter the ragged tear in your spirit. Work would be a lover in your bed as you wept, ever present and steady, cradling you when you woke up soaked in your sweat, unsure of how long you'd lost consciousness. You still have me. You always have me."

My rating: 5/5

A Few More Thoughts (Spoilers)

If the first book was incredible, then this one is a masterpiece! It's exciting, smart, challenging, and, much like the show it comes from, offers a beautiful redemption arc that is hard won. It also kept me guessing at every turn. The ending is perfect, and the relationship between Yangchen and Kavik is life!

I had no idea that the stabbing and torture scene with Kavik was a ruse, nor that it was Kavik's idea in the first place. I was also completely tricked into thinking that Yingsu was dead. I suppose I was also surprised - and impressed - by all that these characters went through. I did not expect Nujian to die - that hurt!

This book teaches that peace and prosperity do not always come easily. In fact, sometimes healing can only come after everything we love, feel, or believe is lost, sacrificed, or put to the test. Also, the pressure of being the Avatar is far too much for one person to bear.

[malicemizer]

Ok I’m at the part of the book where it obvious Yangchen is falling in love with Kavik, god bless

[aimlacely-sapphic]

Omg I just finished The Dawn of Yangchen and this book!! it had me at the edge of my seat the entire time and the ending killed me a little.

I absolutely love how much deapth they gave yangchen's character as an air avatar. Delving into the intricacies of balancing helping others with the principle of negative jing. I appreciate that they showed her as a little cut throat and decisive because where Aang had to hold on to the last scraps of his air nomad culture she was able to bend the rule and principles in pursuit of good. (Also making it clear how easily corruptible that is)

I love the way combustion bending and other uses of airbending were introduced and the complex political systems we were introduced to were very well through out. Also the unique relationship Yangchen has with the past avatars and the limitations of communing becoming explicitly defined while falling in line with Aang's experiences was a really nice touch.

I know a lot of people have complained about the book focusing too much on Kavik but I actually thought it brought a nice level of balance to the novel and found the development of his and Yangchen's dynamic to be beautiful if painful. The fact that when he was his most honest and vulnerable for good intentioned reasons was when she stopped trusting him hurts so bad, especially because it is a sign of how jaded Yangchen is to not trust his vulnerability the way she trusted his pragmatism.

I cannot overstate how much I appreciate them challenging the idea of it being okay to only care about the big issues and moments that define centuries by reminding us that Yangchen's small acts matter to and the daily wellbeing of individuals is a battle worth fighting.

I can't wait to see where this series goes because there has been so much set up by the dawn of Yangchen which can play out in interesting ways down the line (especially with Kavik joining the White Lotus)

[creampuffqueen]

Cover Story

Yangvik Week day 1 - fake dating

Summary: At a party in the Earth Kingdom, Yangchen and Kavik are on a mission. When things don't go to plan, they have to think quick to keep their cover.

Word count: 4248

----

“Traveling alongside the Avatar - what an honor!” The older Earth Kingdom nobleman smiles over his glass of rice wine. Kavik forces a smile in return, swirling the liquid in his own glass to obscure just how little he’s drank. This must be the third time he’s heard the same sentence in the last fifteen minutes. 

“Certainly. I enjoy the work.” The rehearsed words fall easily off his tongue, their smooth and gilded façade right at home inside the splendor of the royal ballroom of Ba Sing Se. “I am grateful to be a trusted companion of Avatar Yangchen.”

He goes to take a tiny sip of his drink, hopeful to avoid as much small talk as possible, but finds the wine frozen solid in its glass. Speak of the darkness. 

A subtle motion with his hand is all it takes to unfreeze his drink, allowing him to actually take a sip - though with the delay he knows it now looks like he just drained the glass. Before the nobleman in front of him can comment, though, his eyes are drawn to something behind Kavik’s back. 

Avatar Yangchen steps into place beside Kavik with gentle, measured steps. In the disgusting display of wealth here in the palace, she’s a yellow-and-orange breath of fresh air, both literally and figuratively. Kavik and the others had to dress up to attend this party. Yangchen, being an Air Nomad with no possessions to her name, did not.   

The nobleman bows deeply before her. “Avatar Yangchen, it is a great honor to see you here in the Earth Kingdom.”

Yangchen bows to him in turn; a smaller motion, but no less lacking in respect. “Please, Lord Bozhou, the pleasure is all mine. I do hope you don’t mind, but I must steal my companion away for a moment. We have something to discuss with Lady Gyeshe.”

Lord Bozhou (how Yangchen can remember all these names, Kavik will never know) nods quickly in response. “Of course, Avatar, please. I will miss his invigorating tales, but you must take care of business.”

“Thank you, Lord Bozhou,” Yangchen replies, hooking one of Kavik’s arms with her own. She pivots on her heel and drags him away. To the average onlooker, her pace looks easy and relaxed, but Kavik can sense the tension in her grip and in the way she steps. 

“He’s not going to miss me,” Kavik mutters quietly, trying to ease her with a bit of humor, “I was positively boring to talk to. And so was he, for that matter. Thanks for the save.”

“I didn’t come and get you just to get your sorry butt out of a conversation,” Yangchen whispers, in that eerie way of hers where her mouth hardly moves. “I just got the signal from Jujinta. We need to move quickly, but act as natural as possible.”

Kavik assumed about as much. If it were up to her, she’d revel in his small-talking misery all night. But they aren’t at the royal palace just to brush elbows with nobility. They have a job to take care of.

“You remember the plan?” Yangchen asks from the corner of her mouth as she smiles and nods at a group of Earth Sages they pass. 

Kavik dips his head in acknowledgement at the delegation from Omashu on the other side of the ballroom. “I do. I’ll wait for three and a half minutes exactly, counting from when the door closes.”

Yangchen doesn’t respond verbally, only squeezing his elbow where their arms are linked. The motion pulls them closer than before. Kavik tries not to notice. 

But as they stop to chat with Lady Gyeshe for a few moments, completing their cover story, he can’t help but notice that Yangchen still stays close, letting their shoulders brush together where they stand. 

She’s done nothing different to her appearance tonight. Her robes are the same as always. Her prayer beads lay in the same spot against her chest. Her hair is in its usual braid, swinging low across her back. And yet, Kavik can’t keep his eyes off her. In this room full of beautiful things, she’s still the most captivating.

“Don’t you agree, Kavik?”

Kavik barely manages to hold back a noise of confusion - something he’s had to train hard to achieve. With only a blink to refocus his thoughts, he manages to pull on his fake smile and nod. “Yes, of course I do.”

Yangchen pats his hand softly, one eyebrow raising a fraction of an inch. Nothing gets past her; she clearly knows he wasn’t listening in the slightest. Still, she plays it off with ease, excusing them once again from the conversation and leading Kavik towards the door of the ballroom, arms still linked. 

“Focus, please,” She admonishes as they exit, “We won’t get another chance as good as this one. If I don’t get Feishan some answers he’s going to get antsy, and we both know how that will end.”

“Sorry, I got distracted. It won’t happen again.”

“Distracted by what?” Yangchen asks lightly as they make their way down the grandiose hallway, “You were only looking at me.”

Heat rises in Kavik’s cheeks. He doesn’t answer. 

Thankfully, they arrive at their destination before Yangchen gets a mind to press for a response. The palace of Ba Sing Se is fancy enough that they have designated rooms just for freshening up; one for men and one for women. Nobles have been using the rooms all evening, keeping their looks fresh for a whole night of royal partying. Now it’s Yangchen’s turn.

“I’ll only be a moment,” Yangchen promises aloud, for the benefit of the guard outside the door and the noblewomen already leaving. 

“Please hurry,” Kavik urges in a similar tone, “I want to hear the end of Lord Bozhou’s story.”

Yangchen gives an exaggerated roll of her eyes. “I’ll be as quick as I can. It won’t kill you to stand outside for a minute or two.”

She steps away, and Kavik feels the absence of her at his side like a gaping hole. He’s so focused on her form retreating through the door that he nearly forgets to start counting, and he clenches his fist in frustration at himself. Keep your head on straight, you fool.

It isn’t difficult to feign boredom as he waits. Time passes so much slower when you’re counting each second. When he gets to three minutes he leans against the wall with a heavy sigh and begins to tap his foot. At three minutes and thirty seconds exactly, he pushes off the wall and heads back the way they came, ignoring the judgemental glare of the nearby guard. He can already imagine the gossip that will come from this. Some companion! Abandoning the Avatar at a royal function?!

Instead of heading back into the main ballroom, Kavik passes the grand doorway and keeps heading straight. He passes a few more rooms before he hangs a left, keeping his expression neutral, showing any onlookers only what he wants them to see: a man who knows where he’s going. A man who’s supposed to be there. Confidence is half the battle in infiltration. Act like you’re meant to be there and nobody will question you. 

The amount of royalty, nobility, and generally important people gathered in the ballroom means that the majority of King Feishan’s guards are close to that area. However, the young Earth King is a paranoid man, keeping guards posted all throughout the palace, just in case. But as Kavik makes his way to the target room, he doesn’t encounter a single one. Jujinta’s part has gone off without a hitch. 

Counting doors carefully to ensure he’s in the right place, Kavik at last stops walking, drawing his hand across the thick wooden door that should belong to the office of Minister Xahu.

That is, if he’s correct. He really hopes he’s correct. 

The door is locked, of course. Not an issue, though. A small pouch at his hip, carefully concealed beneath his clothes, contains enough water for him to freeze two long, thin spikes of ice to use as lockpicks. Kavik unlocks the door easily and slips inside the office, returning the water to its container and shutting the door behind him.

Barely a minute later, two small taps sound through the wooden panel, announcing Yangchen’s presence before she lets herself in. She conjures a flame to her open palm, illuminating the small office room around them, casting their shadows on the wall. 

She doesn’t bother with a greeting. “We need to hurry. Juji can only keep the guards distracted for so long without raising a proper alarm. I’ll take the walls in case the minister used earthbending to conceal anything. You take the desk and the bookshelves. Don’t move anything unless you’re sure you can put it back exactly the way it was.”

“I’m not an amateur,” Kavik reminds her, making his way to the desk. 

Yangchen uses her free hand to start tracing along the walls, feeling with her earthbending for any hidden pockets or seals. “I know that. I mean, this ought to feel natural to you at this point. We basically met in a scenario exactly like this one.”

She punctuates her last sentence by winking at him over her shoulder. Kavik refuses to react, even as he feels his cheeks begin to redden. His fumbling hands very nearly knock over a small carved badgermole statue. 

Kavik makes his way along the ornate desk, feeling with one palm for disguised seals or latches and using his other hand to tap a rhythmic pattern on the wood, listening carefully for any area that sounds hollow where it shouldn’t be. 

Nothing. Kavik grits his teeth, keeping his frustration in check. He moves on to search inside the many drawers, taking care not to disturb the contents. 

“Any luck?” Yangchen asks softly. She’s finished her check of the walls and is now inspecting the floor. The slide of her shoes across the polished stone floor makes a quiet rasping noise that prickles the hair on the back of his neck.

“Nothing yet. But these drawers are pretty full of papers. He might have tried to hide the records in plain sight.”

“Doubtful.” Yangchen peers over Kavik’s shoulder, glancing over the masses of files stuffed inside the drawer he has opened. This close, he can feel the ghost of her breath at the crook of his neck, feel the tiny puff of air she releases with every measured exhale. She keeps speaking, but Kavik finds it hard to focus on her words.

“Minister Xahu is the linchpin of this entire thing. He has spirits know how many people expecting their due, and he’s managed to keep it concealed from the Earth King for this long. Those records would have to be detailed, every copper piece accounted for. And he wouldn’t risk another minister or one of the aids accidentally stumbling upon them. They have to be hidden somewhere in this room.”

Somehow, Kavik manages to find his wits in order to give a proper answer. “You’re probably right. Let’s keep looking.” Yangchen pulls away from his shoulder and it takes everything in him not to utterly deflate in disappointment. 

With the desk proving a failure, Kavik heads to the bookshelves while Yangchen makes another pass around the walls. He lets himself fall into his usual rhythm, one developed years ago during his time as an errand runner in Bin-Er. Move quick. Keep your eyes open. Leave no trace.

Though, his jobs in Bin-Er rarely had such high stakes.

Almost six months ago, King Feishan had contacted Yangchen to report a discrepancy in the amount of gold he was receiving from the shang cities. He’d demanded the Avatar’s presence to prove his claims, so Yangchen and Kavik begrudgingly made the journey to Ba Sing Se. The first of many, as it turned out.

Feishan had the two of them count every last piece of gold he received in his latest payment and compare it to the reports they’d sent alongside it. A non-insignificant portion was missing. The king was furious. 

Now, they’ve nearly cracked the conspiracy. One of the king’s own economic ministers, a man named Xahu, has been allowing the shangs to siphon off city funds for themselves - and making his own pocket significantly heavier in the process. He demands a portion from each shang, as payment for keeping their theft off the records.

However, in order to keep track of exactly how much money is going where, Minister Xahu is certain to have his own set of highly detailed records. It isn’t easy to fool both the Earth King and the Avatar, and if the mission goes as planned, the minister will soon be seeing why.

Unfortunately, in order to justice to be enacted, the mission has to be a success - and the minister must be none the wiser that record of his activity has gone missing. At least, not until he’s put to trial.

Kavik is beginning to lose hope. Yangchen is on her third sweep of the office walls, and the flame in her palm is beginning to stutter. Not with exhaustion, but with frustration. Kavik himself has had even less success. Nothing in the desk, nothing in the bookshelf. The minister keeps his office sparsely decorated. They’re running out of things to search.

Yangchen flicks her wrist and the flame in her palm pulses bright, letting Kavik see the thin line of her lips, the deep furrow of her brow as she decides what they should do next. The glow from the fire makes her gray eyes look like molten pools of silver. For a moment, Kavik nearly forgets where he is.

“The plant. We haven’t searched the plant yet.” Yangchen brushes past him, making a beeline towards the towering fern in the corner by the door. Kavik spins on his heel and follows her, ready to assist in whatever way she needs.

With a swift motion, Yangchen grabs the packed soil in the ceramic pot and lifts, heaving the chunk of earth into the air. Instantly Kavik can see they’ve found their spot. A deep indentation is molded into the bottom of the dirt, roots growing around a distinctly block-shaped empty space. Kavik reaches into the pot and pulls out a dirt-covered wooden box.

Yangchen replaces the plant and the pair get to work, silently in sync. Kavik forms his ice-picks once more to unlock the box, and it opens easily under his practiced touch. The minister clearly thought he hid his secrets well enough that he only needed one lock.

The inside of the box is packed full with papers, an informant’s wildest dream. Kavik takes the top half and Yangchen the bottom, and together they sift through the papers at a breakneck pace, taking only the papers with the most damning evidence. Large sums, locations, actual names. Xahu has tried to play the game, but the older minister clearly knows very little about properly guarding secrets. Even the most amateur broker in Bin-Er knows not to use anything or anyone’s true name unless absolutely necessary. Kavik feels a bit like punching the wall. This is the man that robbed the Earth King right under their noses?

In only a few minutes, they’ve skimmed through the whole stack of records. Yangchen takes their evidence and tucks it into her robes, hiding the bulk of paper beneath the very forgiving outline of her Air Nomad clothing. Kavik puts the rest of the paper back into the box and relocks it. Yangchen lifts the plant again to let him replace the box into its hiding spot, cleans up the spilled dirt, and -

“We got it!”

Her arms are around his shoulders before he even realizes it, flinging herself at him with a wide grin, trusting he’ll catch her. Kavik’s hands land at her waist, holding her close for the brief moment of her hug. A triumphant smile of his own tugs at the corner of his mouth, the euphoric feeling of a job well done warming his chest. 

Still smiling, Yangchen reaches up a hand to tousle his hair fondly, making Kavik scrunch his nose in mock annoyance, even as his grin remains firmly affixed to his face. “Hey, it took me forever to get my hair to look this nice!”

Yangchen just ruffles his hair again, rolling her eyes. “I like it better this way.” 

Any retort Kavik had planned dies on his lips, his tongue suddenly refusing to make words as heat blooms in his cheeks. He watches, almost in slow motion, as Yangchen’s gaze veers away from his face. His ears - she must be looking at his ears, they’re probably bright red now and -

A palm slaps over his mouth. “Quiet! There’s someone outside.”

Kavik could kick himself. We just wasted so much time!

Yangchen steps out of his arms, nearly flattening herself against the door as she presses her ear to it. Kavik follows suit, straining to listen through the thick wood.

Sure enough, muffled voices can be heard, growing louder as the people advance down the hallway.

“Ready to get back to the party?” The first voice Kavik doesn’t recognize, but the accent is Upper Ring; the person must be nobility or close to it. Heavy footfalls nearly obscure the reply of the second person, but Kavik focuses with everything he has and manages to catch the second half of it.

“ - a moment, I need to check something in my office while we’re down here. Don’t wait, I won’t be long.”

Kavik’s stomach falls what feels like the height of the Northern Air Temple. The voice is unmistakable; he’s sat through enough miserable meetings with the man.

Minister Xahu is coming to check his office. The office where he and Yangchen currently are, stealing records that will get him sent to prison if discovered. 

Yangchen turns to face him with a blank stare. She doesn’t have a plan for this. They assumed the minister would stay in the ballroom all night. He’d have no reason to travel this far into the palace, not with all the food, drink, and dancing he could want in one place. 

Evidently, they were wrong. There’s no time to waste.

Kavik grabs the heavy chair from the minister’s desk and braces it beneath the door handle. That should buy them a bit of time as the minister struggles to push open the door. “Yangchen, is there any way you can earthbend us out of here?”

“Not without destroying the palace’s structural integrity,” She hisses in reply, beginning to pace. “And the walls aren’t thick enough for me to seal us inside, either.”

The office is sparse. There’s nowhere to hide. What excuse could they possibly give that would hold up their cover? Kavik’s mouth goes dry at the footsteps outside grow closer.

“Hang on, I’ve got an idea.” Yangchen grabs Kavik by both hands and drags him over to the desk. “You’re not going to like it. But trust me on this.”

“I think we’re a bit past caring about how I feel about a plan; tell me what it is.”

“You need to kiss me.”

“What?!”

Did he drink too much back in the ballroom? Did that plant have some kind of hallucinogen in its leaves? Did Yangchen actually just ask him to kiss her -

The door handle rattles, startling both of them. Yangchen’s head whips back and forth between him and the door. “Come on, it’s the only kind of cover that will make any sense!”

“But - I - what?”

The door handle rattles again. The chair budges a fraction of an inch. They’re running out of time. 

“Oh for spirits’ sake, I’ll do it then.”

Yangchen grabs both sides of his face and crashes their mouths together into the best kiss Kavik has ever had. 

Her lips are soft and warm and plush, pliable as they press into his, one hand coming up to tangle into his hair. Kavik stops breathing for half a second before instinct takes over and he’s kissing her back, imagining, if only for a moment, that any of this is real. Yangchen tugs at his hair and Kavik chokes on a gasp. She pulls him closer; his senses are overwhelmed by her. The scent of lemon on her hair, the heat of her body through her robes. He’s never been close to her like this before. He pushes her against the desk as the door finally swings open. 

“What is the meaning of this?!”

Kavik is loathe to pull away, but he does anyway, wondering what they must look like from the minister’s perspective. Blushing faces, wandering hands, messy hair - every bit the young, overeager couple caught in the act. 

“Oh! M-Minister Xahu!” Yangchen stumbles over her words, face flushed bright red. “What are you doing here?”

Kavik can tell the exact moment the minister realizes who he’s just stumbled upon. His green eyes nearly bulge out of his head and his eyebrows almost disappear into his hairline - impressive, considering how far its receded. 

“Avatar Yangchen! My… apologies for the interruption.” The man’s jaw twitches, clearly unsure of how to proceed. A typical couple would be reprimanded and punished for trespassing in such a high level area. But this isn’t a typical couple. This is the Avatar and her companion.

Finally, the minister seems to have decided to treat Yangchen as the Avatar. He bows deeply before them, the couple still tangled together on his desk, and does his best to sound polite when he next speaks. 

“Well, Avatar, this happens to be my office.”

Yangchen gives a surprised little gasp, covering her mouth with her hand. It’s one of the fakest sounds Kavik has ever heard her make. “Oh, I’m so sorry! I didn’t think - I mean, I didn’t realize this office would be needed this evening. You see, I just needed a bit of time away from the party and I asked Master Kavik to accompany me -”

“I understand perfectly,” Minister Xahu interrupts through gritted teeth. Kavik wonders just how much gossip is going to come from this. How long before news of this reaches the shang cities?

“Well, we should leave you in peace, Minister,” Yangchen says, pushing out of Kavik’s embrace and making a beeline for the door. She smooths her robes out as she walks, a flustered young woman trying to appear respectable - and not at all the spymaster checking to ensure the documents are still secured in her pocket. She gestures for Kavik to follow and he does as quickly as possible, eager to escape the fiery glare of the minister. 

Yangchen bows to him in the doorway, peering up at him with imploring eyes. “I trust this… misunderstanding will not be mentioned to others here at the palace?”

“Certainly, Avatar; you have my word.” Kavik bites his lip to hold back a scoff of disbelief.

“Well, in that case, we must be going. Have a wonderful evening!” Yangchen grabs Kavik’s elbow and leads him away, a strange repetition of the way they walked to the office the first time. 

It’s only after they turn the corner that both benders relax, Yangchen letting out an audible sigh of relief. “Good. He bought it.”

“Yeah. Quick thinking.”

She knocks their shoulders together, a small smile curling at the edges of her lips. “You did well, too. Good job making it look so real.”

Kavik can’t meet her eyes. His heart is still pounding too hard. “It was whatever. No problem.”

Yangchen pats at her outer robe again, making sure she still has the papers. “Now we can bring these to King Feishan, as well as the other shangs. We can finally put an end to this nonsense.” 

She keeps talking, but Kavik isn’t listening, not anymore. His focus is honed in on her lips, on the curve of her smile, on the flick of her tongue as she forms her words. He kissed that smile a few minutes ago. He kissed her because she asked him to, and he wants to etch the memory of it into his brain. 

He doesn’t know if he’ll get to kiss her again. Yangchen is clearly unaffected by it; just another matter of business for her. Kavik wonders if it’s stupid of him to hope she’ll ask him to kiss her again, even just for a cover story. 

“Hey, are you alright?”

Kavik jolts at the question. “Hm?”

“You’re not listening. There’s something on your mind. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” he promises, willing himself to believe it. If he believes it, she won’t be able to tell that he’s lying. “I’m just still in shock we pulled that off, even with the hitch in the plan. Things rarely go that smoothly for us.”

Yangchen snorts in agreement, and Kavik’s heart flutters at the sound. “You can say that again. Come on, we’ve been away from the ballroom for a while. I’m sure we’ve been missed.”

They still walk with arms linked, even though the rules of propriety don’t require it at this point. It’s like neither can bear to let go. They step over the threshold of the ballroom as one, back into the gilded room of beautiful lies. Yangchen leans over to murmur something into his ear.

“You know,” She breathes from the edge of her mouth, a whisper of a whisper, “You’re not a bad kisser, Kavik.”

[creampuffqueen]

I wanna hear more avatar headcanons! From the novels or just the avatars themselves! I loved reading your kavik and yangchen hcs 🥹🫶🏻

ahhh thank you!! i'm glad you like my random thoughts lol 🫶

here are a few more random thoughts i've been having that i just haven't quite made into posts yet (mostly yangvik because i love them but some other avatars as well):

yangchen is actually a terrible cook 💀 she's basically always had people taking care of her so she never really needed to learn! she can make a good cup of tea and that's about it. she regularly burns rice. she's also just generally bad at remembering to feed herself. kavik, who is a decent cook, is largely the only reason she remembers to eat

as for the other known avatars: kyoshi is by FAR the best cook. she's genuinely good at it. aang is a very close second. roku, kuruk, and wan are all average at it. korra has been banned from every kitchen in republic city

yangchen and kavik both strike me as people who really enjoy physical touch. they both really enjoy cuddling with each other, even before their relationship turns more romantic. acts of service is also a major love language for them

i also feel very strongly that they never used typical labels for their relationship. they usually referred to each other as their 'partner', occasionally 'lover', but most often just continued to use 'companion'. these vague labels frustrate scholars to no end, and today in the atla universe nobody can agree on the nature of their relationship. which is exactly how they wanted it lol, they were extremely private about their relationship

yangchen does have the iconic crooked smile that all the avatars share, but it only comes out when she's well and truly happy about something

her laugh is the same way. she has a very convincing fake laugh, as her real laugh is kind of 'ugly'. it's some kind of snorting, wheezing sound that kind of sounds like she's dying but is also absolutely adorable. yangchen hates it. kavik adores it, and will make an absolute fool of himself trying to hear it

yangchen is a massive, merciless flirt and takes great pleasure in seeing just how red she can make kavik's face turn. but on the rare occasion kavik gets enough confidence to flirt back, she turns into a total mess

pik and pak's favorite place to sleep is right on top of kavik's face

because of how hard she works herself, yangchen often falls asleep in the strangest places. if she's actually tired, she can fall asleep literally anywhere. it's simultaneously a superpower and a massive annoyance

a somewhat sad/bittersweet headcanon i have is that yangchen dies first. i've seen a lot of people saying that she lives to 150 but i can't find a source for that anywhere so i'm choosing to ignore it. yangchen has already watched too many loved ones die, she doesn't need to see kavik die before her as well. they both live very long lives, but kavik outlives her by a few years. after yangchen's death, he returns home to the northern water tribe

at one point, only a few months before his death, he is out for a walk when a little toddler wanders up to him all alone. he chats with him for a few minutes until the boy's parents find them and thank him for watching over their son. 'kuruk, what have we told you about wandering off like that?' the mother asks. the toddler waves goodbye, and kavik walks home feeling oddly contented. he never meets the boy again, and he dies well before kuruk is revealed as the avatar, but he feels a sense of peace from the interaction, knowing deep down that yangchen has made it safely back into the material world

when kavik dies, he wills his bone necklace to kuruk's family. they don't understand why until kuruk's sixteenth birthday. (SERIOUSLY THEIR NECKLACES LOOK ALMOST IDENTICAL ITS WILD)

that's all the thoughts i can scrape up off the top of my head, but i'm just generally thinking about avatar characters All The Time lmao. thank you for asking!!!

[creampuffqueen]

Deleted Paragraph - Cover Story

when i wrote the kissing scene in my yangvik week fic 'cover story', i ended up scrapping it and rewriting it for reasons i'll explain below if anyone is interested

however i really liked the scene i wrote before so i saved it somewhere else. read on if you'd like to see it :)

The door handle rattles again. The chair budges a fraction of an inch. They’re running out of time. 

“Oh for spirits’ sake, I’ll do it then.”

Yangchen grabs both sides of his face and crashes their mouths together into the best kiss Kavik has ever had. 

Her lips are plush and soft, pressing into his with an urgency that could be mistaken for desperation, if Kavik didn’t know better. One of her hands tangles into his hair, the other grabs his wrist and guides it to the outside of her thigh, maneuvering him into the most scandalous position she can manage on a moment’s notice. She tugs him closer, molding their bodies together against the desk, opening up her mouth as if to urge him onwards.  Kavik wants so much to fall for it.

i ended up rewriting it because i didn't like how introspective kavik was being during it. i wanted to show him being taken aback by the kiss, and then getting super into it, right before they're interrupted. although i loved my writing in this original scene, he was being far too analytical about the situation, and not appreciating the kiss as much i wanted him to. something else that didn't make it into the final cut was the part about yangchen trying to make everything seem more scandalous - hence the hand on her thigh. sadly i couldn't fit it in the final work in a way i liked. you can definitely see the similarities in the two paragraphs, though!

but yeah, this is just a bit of insight into my writing process. in all honesty, i don't edit my fics a whole lot. my 'editing' is usually just a quick readthrough for typos, possibly changing words or a sentence to make it flow better. rarely do i ever feel dissatisfied with entire scenes, and when that happens, i usually save the scrapped part just in case i find somewhere else to put it later

if anyone has any further questions about my writing process, feel free to send an ask! otherwise, enjoy this fun little scrapped kissy yangvik bit :)

[yell0wsalt]

Fic: Go on and pull me under with you

Relationship: Kavik/Yangchen

Rating: G

Summary: Sleep… is just like love. One step in, slow. Then before you know it, it takes you all at once.

Yangchen and Kavik, falling asleep together. From acquaintances, to friends, to something more.

For @yangvikweek2024 Day 3: Literal Sleeping Together

****

It had been a long day of travel. The warm skies have turned to dusky yellows, oranges, and reds long ago. Right at the horizon, dark blues began to make themselves known. It was time to set up camp and rest for the night. The bits of the fire from a roaring crackle to persistent wispy embers. 

Yangchen and Kavik have been moving across the open sea for several hours from the Northern Air Temples to the southernmost tip of the Fire Nation. There had been a summons from Fire Lord Gonryu for Yangchen. For what, exactly? That was the biggest question looming over them for there was nary a detail written in the received messenger hawk. 

Read the rest on AO3 here

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

When Water Tribe companions meet (aka: so I have another hc)

Korra: Wow! Look at all the Water Tribe benders! :D Master Katara! Katara: Wow you must be the Avatar after Aang, am I your sifu too? Korra: Yup! Sokka: Heh, wow then Katara must be ancient. ¬‿¬ Katara: Oh shut it Sokka! Kuruk: Ah! Youth! So carefree! Amak, 30s, Kuruk's era ver: You're always carefree Kuruk. >_> Taqukaq: Yeah Avatar Kuruk. Maybe if you weren't so carefree, then Avatar Kyoshi wouldn't have had to do so much in her lifetime! Kirima: Oh shut it, like you know anything! Kuruk: *sweating* Tayagum: And you know something? Kirima: Uhhhhh Kyoshi doesn't want me talking about it sooooo uhhhh..... Akuudan: Well if your Avatar isn't butt hurt about it, then I guess it's fine. Atuat, 40s, Kyoshi era ver: *staring at Amak, bug eyed* Brother! Amak: ????? Atuat? Is....is that you? Atuat, slapping her brother on the back, cheerfully: Look at you alive! Amak: ???! I'm dead? Atuat: Don't worry about it! Hey is this all of us? Tayagum: No, there's one more. Atuat: We'll they better get here soon! I want this Water Tribe Party to get started! >:) Kirima: Hell yeah! Kavik, walking in: S-sorry I'm late! Yangchen needed somethin-uh, why are they staring at me like that? Atuat and Amak: *mouths on the floor* Kirima: No idea, hey you ok in there? Amak: G-g-g-g-g-gra-gra Atuat: GRANDFATHER KAVIK?! Kavik: .........*falling backward from shock* WHAT?! Yangchen, ripping the door off it's hinges and coming in: WHAT?! Kavik: Ah! What are you doing here?! Water Tribe only! Yangchen, lying: I forgot to give you something! Kavik: Well what is it?! Yangchen: It's not important, right now! Kavik: Well if it's not important then-ah! Amak, grabbing Kavik by the chin: It's the same bone structure.... Atuat: Same shifty eyes... Kavik: My eyes are not shifty! Atuat, hugs Kavik: Oh grandfather! We've missed you so much! Kavik: C-can someone please explain! I'm so confused! ;w; Yangchen, cooly: Yes please, We're all dying to know. Atuat, unperturbed: Grandfather! You have to tell us, who is our grandmother! Kavik: HuH?! W-what do you- Amak: You never told anyone. You were away for 9 months, then came back and said "I knocked up a girl in the Earth Kingdom, she died in childbirth. Here mother, father, help me raise this kid." Atuat: And then you had our greatgrans raise our mother more than you did! Everyone: *judging Kavik* Kavik: I-I don't know about any of this! Really! I don't know any women! Atuat: But what's odd, is that mother mentioned you slipping up one time! You said she was a "Southern Water Tribe" Woman once! But then quickly changed it back to Earth Kingdom. Hmmm, so which is it? Korra: I can't believe you basically abandoned you're kid with your parents. What's the matter with you?! Tayagum: And here we thought you couldn't stoop any lower..... Yangchen: I can't believe I ever called you a companion..... Atuat: Huh? Oh! No no, he didn't abandon our mother willy nilly. He was just so busy with helping you Avatar Yangchen! :) He did his best to stay present, don't worry! It helped that you visited a lot too, apparently! Yangchen, blanching: ....... Kavik, looking everywhere but at Yangchen, red as hell: ....... Amak: Oh that reminds me, Avatar Yangchen be careful dealing with spirits. They say you were overcome by a sickness that lasted nearly a year because of a fight with one! Yangchen, face going blank: ....s....spirits.....right.... Everyone: *silence* Yangchen: I'm going to return to the Air Nomad meet up....if you don't mind. *sprints away* Sokka: Huh, she looked spooked. Kuruk, snickering: Mu....must've....snnkrk....must've seen a spirit!

[creampuffqueen]

don’t remember if i’ve talked about this headcanon on here but whatever. how did the order of the white lotus go from actively working against the avatar during yangchen’s era to fighting on the avatar’s side in aang’s era to openly working for the avatar in korra’s era?

part of it i’m sure has to do with the OWL’s philosophy. they care about preserving the world, and during aang’s time their goals aligned with the avatar’s

but it really is a pretty big switch up between the two time periods. so my thought is that it actually could be a result of kavik’s influence

at the end of legacy, he’s saying that he’s getting out of the game. he’s no longer actively working with the OWL. but we know (or can certainly assume) he keeps working with yangchen. but just because someone is no longer an active member of the OWL, doesn’t mean they are no longer part of it. you can’t exactly stop being a member

so i’m thinking that, over the course of his life, kavik actually continued to work within the OWL - but this time specifically on the avatar’s side. and by the time he dies, his influence has been enough that the OWL continues to work alongside the avatar rather than against them. as seen in the kyoshi novels, jinpa is essentially part of kyoshi’s team AND a member of the OWL. yes, he’s there to keep an eye on kyoshi and report back on her actions, but he’s also genuinely helpful towards her

and as time goes on, the OWL continues to help along the avatar’s goals until we get to their part in aang’s story - fighting alongside the avatar

this also ends up connecting to korra’s story as well. by the time korra comes around, the OWL is openly serving the avatar. some members are unhappy about this, which ends up causing the fracture into the red lotus. although the red lotus are certainly extremists, they act much more similarly to the OWL that was around during yangchen’s time. attempting to shape the world, sometimes through violence - and failing, leaving a mess for someone else to clean up. it’s sort of interesting that these failed plots both ended up affecting the earth kingdom. first with the platinum affair, and then again with the fall of ba sing se

just a few things to think about lol