into the deep end

For a long time when he was younger, Tommy had held out hope of being a bender. The river whispered secrets to him, and rain always stopped to say hi, and every puddle they passed stretched towards his feet in greeting, and for a long time Tommy thought that was a sure sign that he'd unlock some secret waterbending skills one day. But he was sixteen now, nearly four years past when even the late-bloomer’s bending abilities emerged, and such fantasies were a delusion of the past. The ice thing had been a fluke. It had to be. Tommy wasn't a waterbender, and that was that. (Except that it very much wasn't.)Or, Tommy is the avatar and Wilbur really, really wishes he wasn't.