Avatar One-Shots

Beifong Rage (Linzin/Pemzin)

A/n and now we have prompt number 2, Linzin for @CelestialKnife

.

.

.

Lin was pissed. Wait, no, Lin was more than just pissed. Lin was enraged.

She and Tenzin had been together since they were sixteen. She loved him. Hell, she was expecting a ring any day. But then all of a sudden, he was leaving her for some little Acolyte slut who was probably born around the time they became a couple. Dumped for a younger woman. How...annoying.

She didn't let it affect her too much, though. She put on her tough exterior around her officers like she did every day, ignoring the whispers that were bound to be exchanged around her.

The thing that got to her the most wasn't his actually breaking up with her. While she didn't want that to happen, part of her knew it'd been coming. What irked her was the fact that he'd left her for someone sixteen years younger. This not only hurt her pride, but damaged her public image a bit. And that, above all, infuriated her.

Her anger was released once she arrived home. At first, she would fume silently or not-so-silently. Then she began punching rocks. Then she sculpted the rocks to look like Tenzin or his little Acolyte skank and utterly annihilated them.

By the end of the week, though, her anger had only grown. She wanted to get him good, And she knew just how to go about it.

-

"TENZIN!" Aang roared, anger evident in his voice. Tenzin woke with a start. Even in his father's old age and less-than-healthy state, the Avatar's voice boomed. Tenzin sprang from bed and ran in the direction of his father's voice, not even bothering to get dressed. Even an old and sickly Avatar's wrath was not something he wanted to encounter. He knew Aang was slow to anger, and thus on the rare occasions on which he was mad, it was best to be on a different continent.

"Yes, Fa-" he started, but stopped dead in his tracks. Somehow, and he thought he knew how, the entire island was gone. All of it. The only land left was the land on which the temple itself rested. Not even the trees were left. There was no outline whatsoever. Whoever did this had left just enough earth to support the temple. If you stood on the edge of the threshold, you could look down into the sea.

Aang stood on a patch of rock just outside the doorway. Tenzin suspected he had put it there himself.

"What did I tell you about breaking up with Lin?" He asked. Tenzin winced.

"That it was the worst idea you'd ever heard in your life...?" The younger man responded. Aang pointed towards the mainland of Republic City.

"Go apologize to her. Now!" The Avatar commanded him. Tenzin shrunk back a little, but otherwise didn't give. He was a grown man, after all.

"Why?! It's not like we were joined a the hip, we'd been growing apart for years! Besides I have a right to break up with someone if I want."

"And now she and Toph have turned our island upside down!"

The Avatar pointed to the heavens. Slowly, Tenzin looked up. Sure enough, the land that had been missing from the island was above his head, trees and all. There were even a few sky bison grazing up there. He didn't want to know how that worked.

"Okay, okay! I'll go!" He said, whistling. Oogi drifted down from the island and landed in front of him. Grumbling under his breath-mostly about how he was a grown man and shouldn't have to listen to his daddy anymore-Tenzin took off.

Toph greeted him outside the moment he landed. A rock shot towards his head, which he narrowly avoided.

"You got a 'lotta nerve coming over here, Twinkletoes jr." She called to him, anger evident in her voice. Tenzin sighed.

"I'm here to talk to Lin," he said. Toph crossed her arms and fixed her empty gaze on him, which somehow managed to make her even more menacing. Without looking away, she called to her daughter.

"Lin! There's an elbow leech here to see you!"

Lin came out not two seconds later, smirking quite contentedly. Her smirk widened when she saw Tenzin's scowl.

"Why, hello Tenzin. I'm glad you could find the time to pry yourself away from that Acolyte child you're so desperately in love with long enough to humble me with your presence."

Tenzin wasn't amused. "That was quite a number you did on the island," he commented. Now it was Toph's turn to smirk.

"Oh, did something happen to the island?" She asked, "I hope everything's alright. I'd hate for your world to be turned upside down."

Tenzin's face turned red for a moment before he remembered the reason he was there. With a deep breath, he managed to calm himself.

"Lin, I'm sorry, I really am, but you and I both know we've been drifting apart for awhile now. I didn't leave you for Pema, I was honestly going to break up with you anyway. I just... needed a reason to, I guess. I still love you, Lin, I'm just not in love with you. Not anymore. I never wanted to hurt you, honest, but it had to be done. Please... can you forgive me? Can't we be friends again?"

His eyes shone with sincerity. Tenzin found that he meant every word he'd said. They stood there, staring at each other for a good ten seconds, before Lin sighed.

"All this time and I still can't stay mad at you..." she muttered. His eyes lit up. As she looked at him, she tried in vain to force her heart to stop fluttering.

"So does this mean-" he began, only to be cut off.

"Yes, Tenzin. We can be friends again."

He flashed that same smile that always made her heart melt just a little bit. Lin didn't turn to putty over men, but for Tenzin, she always softened a little.

"Thank you, Lin! You've got no idea how much that means to me!" Tenzin cried, wrapping his arms around her. She returned his embrace with the slightest trace of a tear.

"I love you, Tenzin," she whispered, hoping he didn't hear.

Tenzin didn't respond. He said his goodbyes and went on his way. Lin sighed, grateful to have gotten that out of the way. With a somewhat heavy heart, she went back inside, with Toph right behind her.

"I love you too," he whispered once he was in the air.