The ages in the story:
Bumi (21)
Kya (18)
Izumi (17)
Tenzin (15)
Lin (14)
Suyin (8)
Hope you enjoy it :) (Needles to say ATLA and LOK don't belong to me)
oooooooooo
"Stop your bellyaching and get in, I don't got all night!" Toph gave her two daughters a gentle push through the front door. Their arrival was expected, since Air Temple Island has been shaking for a minute and a half now, ever since the Beifong trio stepped off the boat. They were fighting about something again. As per usual, Katara thought, before deciding it wasn't nice of her. Sure, every family was different and unique in their own way, but she always had a hard time understanding this kind of love.
Katara and Kya were ready to receive their guests, but didn't really want to interrupt, so they both just stood by the door waiting for them to finish.
"I am not sleeping in the same room as her..." Su dropped her decent sized suitcase and refused to move until her mother acknowledged her.
"Like I want to be here..." Lin said and turned to her mother, "Why won't you let me go with you?! I can help. I can fight."
Katara straightened a painting that got chucked by the earth tremoring.
"When you work on your metalbending, then we'll talk. Get to the room and unpack! Both of you."
"But I said I'm not-" Su started.
"You can sleep in my room." Kya finally managed to get a word in.
"Thank you." Su ran and hugged her.
"Katara, you ready to go?" Toph wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.
"Can you do my hair like you did for my birthday?" Su asked Kya.
"Only if you do mine too."
"Suyin, don't bother Kya while you're here, she has more important things to do." Toph cut in.
"Oh, no, Aunt Toph, it's really no trouble at all." Kya smiled, "I always wanted a little sister. But all I got was Tenzin."
"Speaking off, Tenzin is in his room, you should go say hi, Lin." Katara suggested. But Lin wasn't done arguing with her mother yet.
"I don't understand why you brought me here... Kya is just a few years older than me and she is supposed to babysit me?"
"Actually, they got someone way cooler for the job." a man's voice came through the still open door.
"Bumi!" Kya ran toward her big brother and jumped to hug him. None of them had seen him for a few months, since his post in the United Forces army kept him pretty busy.
"How are you here?" she asked.
"Easy, Mom pulled a few strings. So I can look after you guys while she and Toph are gone."
"You said you'll just be gone for a few days, Mom. What's going on?" Kya knew her mother wouldn't bring Bumi or the Beifongs here if she wasn't planning on going on a lengthy mission.
"Nothing, sweetie. Dad just asked for a little backup on a mission. It won't take long." Luckily for Katara, the only person that could tell she was lying was Toph.
"Is Dad in trouble?"
"Of course not," Bumi winked ever so slightly at his sister, "They just can't tell us details of secret missions."
Kya nodded and stopped asking questions, seeing Bumi obviously knew something the rest of them didn't.
"Tenzin, get out here!" Katara called out before giving Bumi a hug. A few seconds later, the airbender peeked his head into the room.
"I'm home, little brother!"
Tenzin started walking towards them.
"I didn't know you were- Oh, hi Lin!" Tenzin smiled and waved a little, even though he was just a few steps away when he noticed her. Lin gave him a halfhearted smile, since she was still pissed at her mother.
"You've grown, Tez!" Bumi put his hand on his brother's shoulder, seemingly going for a hug, but ended up putting him in a headlock.
"Let go of me!" Tenzin struggled, but couldn't get free since his brother was always much stronger. He couldn't believe Bumi was doing this in front of everyone. In front of Lin!
Kya and Su continued laughing, even after Bumi released his little brother whose face was pretty much read as a beet by then. Lin just rolled her eyes and walked to the room.
"How do you do that?" Su asked and stepped closer to Bumi.
"Well, the trick is to choose someone who won't be expecting it," he whispered to her like it was a big secret, "It's a little trickier with Tenzin, since usually you just ruffle up the person's hair a bit, but with him you have to pretend like you're shining a big glass ball."
Su laughed again and then Bumi let her try it on him.
"We really should be off, Mrs. Avatar. Bumi's got this covered." Toph stepped outside.
"Yeah, I'm on the job. I'll get these turtle-ducks in a row." It was hard to take Bumi's words seriously while Suyin was pulling his hair and giggling.
Katara took a few more minutes to say goodbye to each of her children, all the while Toph nervously tapped her foot.
"... you know that if you need anything, anything at all, you can ask the Air Acolytes. And don't forget, Bumi's in charge."
"Come on, your babies are not babies anymore..." Toph pulled Katara through the door, "Su, don't do anything your sister wouldn't do. And tell Miss Drama I'll take her with me next time."
With that the Chief slammed the door and soon the teenagers were left completely without parental supervision.
"Alright, spill it, Bumi. What did Mom tell you?" Kya asked.
"I don't know everything. Be aware, I had to drag this out of her. Dad went on a mission a few weeks ago with Uncle Sokka and Fire Lord Zuko..."
"We already knew that! We live here." Tenzin interrupted.
"Yes... Well, they all went since the Northern Tribe's Chief has been kidnapped. And he's not the only one. Dad found out where these criminals were supposedly hiding..."
"And they put them all in prison?" Su cut in.
"Maybe she shouldn't be hearing this." Kya pulled the little girl in closer.
"This concerns all of us. Dad, Zuko, Sokka, no one's heard from them since they left. Now I don't know why Mom and Toph decided to go after them now, but I know they put us all in one place so we'd protect each other in case someone goes after us..."
"I know why they left," Lin has been listening to the whole thing but only now decided to make her presence known, "I heard my mother talk about it. They found Appa a few days ago. He returned without Aang."
Lin watched as all three of the Avatar's children winced at the thought. Their father was always very busy with his Avatar duties. Even when he was home his thoughts were rarely there. And for the most part, they understood. He had to whole world to think about, not just them.
But he always came back.
"I know this sounds bad," Bumi bounced back first, "But our mothers will take care of it. They've saved the world before. And I'll take care of all of you, I swear."
Kya pulled her two brothers in for another hug, while Lin and Suyin just shared a few looks.
"Not to go back on what I just promised," Bumi started, "But does anyone know how to cook something?"
"Oh, I'll go make dinner..." Kya said and walked in the direction of the kitchen, but not before pulling Bumi's hair out of an already messy tail.
"And the rest of us are gonna have some fun tonight. I think we have just enough heads here for a full band!" Bumi pulled Tenzin closer, "Brother, you can go get the tsungi horn, I'll sing, of course, then we have Lin on the drums and little Su on the lute..."
"Count me out." Lin disappeared into the hall.
"OK, we have little Su on the drums..."
oooooooooo
"I made... um... tea and I know how you like to drink tea... I mean I saw you drink tea. Not that I was watching you or anything... I just saw... Tea..." Tenzin was standing in the hall in front of Lin's temporary room and speaking to himself as quietly as possible.
He never had a problem speaking to Lin before; after all they knew each other all their lives. Only recently has he started thinking about her in a different way. And it was confusing. And embarrassing.
"Come on, Tenzin. She's your friend. This isn't hard." he took a deep breath and tried again, "Hello, Lin, I made tea. I brought you some in case you'd like to drink it... With me... While we're together. No."
"Hello, Lin. Would you like to go drink tea with me? Well, not really go because I brought it here... No."
"I can't watch this anymore..." Bumi said at the other end of the hall and started walking closer.
"Leave me alone, Bumi."
"I didn't know you had a thing for Lin. Or is that just a nickname you gave to that wall?"
"Lower your voice." Tenzin blushed like a tomato for the second time that night.
"May I bestow some brotherly wisdom upon you, Tez?"
"If I say no you'll just embarrass be further so, I guess, yes."
"Perfect," Bumi put one arm around his brother's shoulder and started gesturing with the other, "This is something I learned when I joined the army..."
Oh, this was going to be unbearable, Tenzin realized.
"... some girls you can win over with your gifts and your songs and whatnot, while others want to go on adventures together, they want to fight evil together. There was this redhead from my unit..."
"Your point is?"
"Lin is the second kind. And if you go in with your tea party idea, she won't take you seriously."
Tenzin didn't say anything, but Bumi's words started making sense. Lin was a lot different from other girls he knew. Maybe he could alter his approach just a bit.
"Where am I supposed to find an adventure on Air Temple Island?" he asked.
"You're right. That's impossible." Bumi made a pause and rubbed his goatee, like he was deep in thought, "Start small. Ask her to spar with you."
"And she'd like that?"
"Only one way to find out." Bumi grabbed the cup of tea out of Tenzin's hand and turned him towards Lin's door. The airbender took a deep breath like he was about to jump off a cliff and entered.
Inside, Lin was lying still on her cot, spinning a few pebbles in the air out of boredom. She sat up as soon as she heard him enter and returned the stones to her hand.
"Hello, Lin. I was wondering if you'd like to train with me... I mean, spar with me."
"Right now?"
"It's OK if you don't want to..."
"No, it sounds fun... I'm just really tired, that's all." she laid back on her cot.
Tenzin looked at her for a few more seconds, before grabbing the door knob to exit.
"I didn't say leave." Lin interrupted him, "We can do it tomorrow. Who knows how long we'll be staying."
Tenzin nodded and stepped away from the door. He briefly entertained the idea of sitting next to her on the cot, but dismissed it in the end. He sat on the floor next to her, since the room didn't have much else in the way of furniture.
"Are you worried about your dad? Is that why you're acting... Well, weirder than usual?" Lin turned to her friend.
Tenzin was worried, but he couldn't give into those thoughts now. If he did they would devour him.
"Must be it." he beamed at her.
"You know what I could go for, right now? Some tea."
oooooooooo
It was a pointless attempt, Tenzin knew it. But he had to try. He'd never made it into the Spirit World before, but maybe now, when there was something real at stake, he could finally succeed. If he could just focus, maybe he could find his father in there. Maybe he could tell him what was going on.
"Focus... Focus... Focus..." Tenzin mumbled to himself as he sat out in the yard with his eyes closed. It was just after midnight, so everyone was finally asleep. This was the perfect time.
Maybe it was just his brain distracting him, but he could have sworn he heard someone in the stables. A voice. It was too late to be one of the acolytes. It surely wasn't one of his siblings. He had a duty to check it out.
As he approached to source of the noise, he was becoming more and more sure something wasn't as it was supposed to be.
"Show yourself, intruder!" he yelled as he turned the corner to Oogi's stall.
"Intruder?" Lin peeked from Oogi's saddle.
"It's the first thing that came to mind..." Tenzin lowered his staff and came closer to pet his bison, "What are you doing, Lin?"
"It doesn't concern you, Tez." she used a thin pillar of earth to lower herself from the bison's back.
"You're going after them? You're stealing my bison!"
"Borrowing." she threw another bag onto Oogi's back.
"You don't even know where this secret criminal hideout is. You can't go."
"Actually, I overheard the directions to the site, too. I must do this, Tez. I have to prove my mother I can be useful. I don't expect you to understand..."
"I do understand. Don't you think I want to go save my dad? But the best thing any of us can do right now is stay out of trouble and look after one another."
"I'm doing this!"
"Alright. Then I'm going with you." Tenzin pushed his staff into her hands.
"You don't have to..."
"You must do this, remember?" Tenzin mocked her gravely serious tone.
And there it was. The first genuine smile that crossed Lin Beifong's face since she got there.
Tenzin took a quick look at the supplies she prepared and deemed them insufficient. He decided to make a quick run to the kitchen to get some more food, since the number of passengers doubled. Lin just waited patiently with Oogi, thinking about what her mother's reaction might be when they catch up to Katara and her.
Tenzin returned faster than she expected. She was surprised to see him not carrying anything. She was even more surprised to see Kya and Bumi following shortly after him.
"Didn't think you were a damn snitch!" Lin yelled. She would never admit it, but this kind of hurt coming from him. She was never good at finding friends, she was even worse at keeping friends, but with Tenzin... It was different. Or so she thought.
"I'm sorry... I didn't..." Tenzin started.
"He didn't tell us. I found him sneaking in the kitchen, packing up food." Kya explained before pulling Tenzin by one of his ears causing him to let out a groan of pain.
"You have to realize, kids, nothing goes down over here without..." Bumi yawned, "Without me knowing about it."
"Oh, stop, you were sleeping like a log," Kya said, "How could you think this was a good idea, Lin?"
"I was gonna go alone and-"
"And that's better? If there's something really going on we have to stay together."
"Unlike you, Kya, I can't just sit and wait and make pretty hairstyles while our parents are out there fighting!"
There was a short pause after Lin said that. She was already sorry when she finished her thought, but there was no avoiding it now. Tenzin and Bumi were both frozen, not knowing what to do.
"I'm sorry, but someone had to look after Su since her sister doesn't seem to care!" Kya didn't hold back any punches.
Tenzin noticed Lin had that look. Everyone in their generation at school knew that look. It was the look Lin got when she was about to kick some bully's teeth out.
"Stop!" Bumi positioned himself in between the two girls, "You're both right! Lin, we do need to stay together. But we don't have to do it here."
"What are you suggesting?" Kya asked, forgetting about her quarrel with Lin immediately.
"I'm saying, go pack, Team Avatar leaves in ten minutes."
Tenzin was never before so thankful for his older brother. Or since, for that matter. They all grew up with stories of their parents flying around, having adventures and saving the world. Maybe it was their time, finally.
"What the hell did you put in here, Kya?" asked Bumi loading the last bag onto Oogi.
"Only the essentials." she said and luckily didn't see Lin roll her eyes as a response.
"So it's definite? We're leaving the little badgermole behind? Seems wrong." Bumi was the last one to climb onto the saddle.
"She's too young. The Air Acolytes will take good care of her." Lin said.
Tenzin took that as a sigh to lift the bison of the ground.
"So where to, Lin?" he asked after they distanced themselves from the island.
"The Fire Nation, of course." Bumi said, "We're a crewman short."