DISCLAIMER: Full Credit goes to the creators of The Legend of Korra and Avatar the Last Airbender series. I am by no means taking any credit for the character, settings, or the whole "bending" thing. I will do my best to credit the creators of the headcanons I borrowed, but I am not perfect. Let me know if I miss anything. Please feel free to comment on what I can do better as a writer! I am open to CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. I don't have any Beta readers so any grammatical and spelling errors are mine. I am in the process of writing a theme song for this on the piano, and I will attach it to one of the later chapters. My idea is that Lin plays piano, so hopefully I can come up with something good! Cover art credit goes to @tinylittlangie on Pinterest. (I think)
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"Lin are you ready to go?", Kya called.
"Yes, just give me a minute to get situated!", Lin called back as she slid the power banks onto her leg braces. (I'll go more into depth on how they look and work in the later chapters)
"Lin", Kya says as she walked in. "You know that you don't have to wear those right now. The whole point of us going to Air Temple Island is to tell everyone about the secret you and I have been keeping."
"But I thought that we were going to tell them about us dating?"
"Oh, umm that too, but I thought we could tell them about you know, this, too.", Kya responded, gesturing to the platinum braces that basically walked for Lin.
"I'm not sure I'm ready for all the kids and your brother to see me as some sort of cripple.", Lin said, her face hard.
"Lin, nobody is going to see you as a cripple. If anything, they are going to know you're even stronger."
"You don't know that. I don't care what they think of me. I just don't want their pity.", Lin spat out the last word like it was poisonous.
Kya sighed. "Fine, how about we start by telling them about our relationship, and then we can explain what happened with P'Li."
"Sure.", Lin replied, sarcastically. "Because it will be so easy to tell them that I got blasted in the back by the third-eyed freak, and it left me completely paralyzed from the waist down and now I have another scar, that is even uglier than the other what, 40 million that I have?
"Lin I-"
"And now that we've decided to tell all our secrets to the world, why don't we tell them that you and I are the Earth and Water Titans?! Let's put a huge target on our backs! Fantastic!", Lin finished, anger evident in her green eyes.
"Lin, we don't have to tell them anything if you don't want to. We can just tell them about our relationship and figure the rest of this out.", Kya said, with a hurt look on her face.
"I'm sorry for yelling. It's been a long day an-and um, it hurts."
"I'm not upset, I just don't want you to put yourself through unnecessary pain at home too."
" I use my chair at work, and all the officers know. I just don't want your brother to become even more of a stick in the mud just cause I can't "walk" normally." , Lin explained with a smirk. "It's not like the pain is ever going to go away either, so I might as well just deal with it."
"Haha, I know TenTen can be kind of overbear- Wait. You actually use your wheelchair at work?"
"Um, well I usually do, unless there is some Triad busting to do. All of my officers know what happened and they have been very good at keeping it secret so far."
"I'm proud of you, Lin." Kya said, with a smile. "But if you are EVER in too much pain to transfer, you are taking the day off work do you understand me?"
"Uh, thanks. Soooo, we're telling them about us, but not about everything else?"
"Lin..."
"Okay okay, I promise to take the day off if my nerve pain gets too bad.", Lin replied frowning. "Although, I still don't understand how I can be in extreme pain without having any feeling or movement below my waist."
"People with incomplete spinal cord injuries can still have pain. You have a incomplete spinal cord injury so the pain is most likely caused by muscle spasms because the braces are walking for you and your brain is confused.", Kya sighed, after explaining this for what seemed like the 100th time.
"Um, ok."
"Well, we need to get to Air Temple Island in the next 10 minutes unless we want to be late. Then we'll have to explain and I doubt you want to tell them about everything."
"Ok, well let's get going. And just to go over the plan, we are NOT telling them about P'Li OR us being Titans. Just about our relationship. Even though the Airhead already knows about the latter.", Lin stated firmly.
"Yes ma'am.", Kya said, laughing.
"Well then, let's get going, you know how I despise being late.", Lin said while turning on her braces to get up from the edge of the bed, where she was sitting. However, a continuous stabbing pain in her back stopped her.
Kya noticed her wincing and asked, "Lin, we don't have to go to dinner if you're not feeling up to it. I can just tell TenTen that you're sick, which isn't entirely a lie."
"Absolutely not." , Lin retorted. "Like I said before, it's not like the pain is ever going to get better, only worse. I might as well go now that I'm feeling ok." She was now standing, and a faint humming could be heard from the magnets in the platinum braces.
"If you need to leave, just let me know. Okay? I care about you, and we need to do your nightly healing sessions as soon as we get back."
"Fine. And promise me that you won't act suspicious? Jinora is bound to figure everything out sooner or later."
"I promise. Now, are we going to leave or not? I know how much you missed having awkward conversations with my brother.", Kya teased.
"Well you're the one who wanted to tell everyone about us, so I'm doing this for you."
"Awww, who knew that the scary Chief Beifong could be such a softie."
"Let's go. We really don't want to be late.", Lin said, blushing while trying to keep up her serious demeanor.
"Lin wait-"
"What now Kya!", Lin rolled her eyes.
"Are you seriously going to wear your armor to dinner?" , Kya asked.
"Yes, I am. Now let's go."
The pair left the large house on Beifong Island (I'll explain later) and made their way to Air Temple Island by boat.
Lin let out a large sigh, "Well, let's just find a good time to bring our relationship up and hope for the best."
"Lin, there is no good time to bring this up. Just let me do most of the talking, my awkward turtle-duck." , Kya replied, taking note of Lin's nervousness.
"Yeah, let's do this. And, awkward turtle duck? Really?"
Yes, Lin, we're here. It's now or never! "
"Wait Kya, shouldn't we wait until-"
"Hey TenTen! Guess what?! I'm dating your ex! That's right, Beifong is mineeee!"
Tenzin had come out to greet Kya and Lin, and was now left speechless and turning purple in the face. Lin was frozen with a look of dread and Kya was smirking, clearly proud of herself.
Lin was the first to break the silence after she had regained her composure, "Maybe we should take this inside... "
Kya and Lin walked towards the house leaving a spluttering and shocked Tenzin behind. Maybe this evening wouldn't be so bad after all.
To be continued...
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The link below is an article that explains nerve pain, and how it can affect the daily lives of spinal cord injury patients. This is my very first fanfiction so feel free to leave a comment letting me know how I did! I would really appreciate it. If there is anything that you don't understand, you can also leave a comment and I will try to explain as best as I can. Thank you!
https://msktc.org/sci/factsheets/pain