It was Aang's idea.
Ever the sentimentalist, he took Toph's question, "Do you really think friendships can last more than one lifetime?' as a challenge—one which he rose to with the utmost enthusiasm. He was determined that while the world would remember him and his friends for the history, he would find a way to memorialize all the small, intimate moments between them that the world would never be privy to.
So, with much help from Sokka, Aang constructed a coffee table that stood proudly in the front room on Air Temple Island. He kept a pen nearby. For every family event, he scratched out a little note on its surface. He was prolific to a fault; so much so that his wife Katara would occasionally become irritated with him when he would spend hours into the night detailing every single moment. No memory was spared—good, bad—nothing was too trivial to escape what Aang had coined "table documentation".
Katara and Aang are married!
Suki accepted Sokka's proposal.
Bumi was born.
The world lost Uncle Iroh, the greatest mentor who ever lived.
Today, he wrote with a smile, Lin Beifong was born.
"Do you think they'll get together?" Katara asked with a giggle, rubbing her nose against her youngest son's. "Tenzin is quite the charmer."
"Come on, Katara," Lin groaned, hugging the bundle that was her daughter close to her chest. "Lin has been born for two hours. Give her some space. Besides, the only way she's going to marry your son is if she's blind like me."
Aang quickly ran into the room to intervene.
Toph let out a huff of annoyance. How was it that her kid—daughter of the greatest earth bender ever, holder of the surname Beifong—was so hopeless at metal bending?
"Try to feel the impurities in the metal, Lin. It isn't difficult, I promise."
Lin threw the hunk of practice metal to the ground. "Thanks for the encouragement, Mom! It's really helping! I'm definitely going to get metal bending thanks to your world class advice!"
Suyin peeked out from the other side of her older sister. "Mom, we've been at this for hours now. Maybe it's time we take a break."
Lin shot her sister a look of contempt. "No," she said stubbornly. "I'm going to stay out here until I get this."
"Fine, have it your way," Suyin shrugged and offered a smile, bending the metal in her hands effortlessly into the shape of a star.
"What? I don't understand. How?" Lin burst out, flabbergasted.
"It isn't difficult, Lin. Why can't you do exactly what Mom told you? Maybe you're just not good enough."
Toph raised an earthen wall to separate the two before Lin could cause anyone bodily harm. She sighed. She missed the quiet days of being an only child.
"I'm with your sister on this one, Lin. Stay out as long as you like." She took Suyin's hand as they departed for the kitchens in search of a midday snack.
Lin collapsed to her knees, choking as she held back the tears. I will metal bend. Then maybe Mom will—. But she musn't get her hopes up.
She sniffed and jumped when she felt a warm hand on her shoulder.
"Lin," Aang said, lifting her chin with his finger. "Do you want someone to talk to? You're in good company. Let me tell you the story of when Toph tried to teach me how to earthbend . . . "
"Hey, I want to show you something."
Lin had always liked this part of Tenzin—the times when she could see traces of his father, so happy, so carefree—it made her feel as light as the air that was as much a part of his culture as it was her heart. Such times were rare, and she cherished them.
"What is it, Tenzin?" she asked, laughing.
His eyes sparkled. "Come over here."
He pulled her under the coffee table, cradling her in his arms. The coffee table had been filled with so many notes that now the only blank space available was under the table. She ran her finger along the writings, a smile playing at her lips.
"What's your favorite memory?" he prompted.
"Hmm," she took in all of the notes as childhood memories washed over her pleasantly. "Maybe the time when Bumi was so determined to be an airbender that he jumped off a cliff. He's always been a riot, that one."
Tenzin chuckled. "Why would Bumi want to remember that?"
"He wouldn't. Kya would. Look." Lin pointed at the inscription written in his older sister's writing. She could picture the water tribe woman's signature smirk.
"Oh Kya," Tenzin chimed in. "Always up for tease."
"So," Lin began, tapping his long nose. "What is it you wanted to show me?"
He swallowed, taking her hand in his and guiding it along the veins of the wood. "Let's make a new memory."
He stopped at a fresh inscription Lin had never noticed before.
Will you marry me?
Lin turned to him, her green eyes alight and wide. "Will you hand me the pen?"
His brow furrowed, but he handed it to her all the same. "You know, you could just answer it aloud . . . " he grumbled.
Under his proposal, she scribbled, Tenzin is going to be a father.
Toph jerked awake from her sleep. The tiny heartbeat that she had come to treasure over the passing months had disappeared. She jumped to her feet and rushed to the room of Lin.
She could hear the screaming and the moans long before she arrived. Katara was already there, working her healing water, and Tenzin stood in the corner, his own heartbeat threatening to pound right through his ribcage.
But the baby . . .
"Toph," she heard Katara's voice. It sounded far away, like she was witnessing Katara speaking to someone else, rather than the address coming from right next to her.
"It's going to be ok," she said, certainly more an effort to reassure herself than anyone else.
Toph stiffened, unable to speak. She knew it was too late.
"GET OUT! GET OUT!" came the shrieks of her oldest daughter. "LEAVE ME ALONE!"
Toph paused. None of the other occupants in the room made an effort to move.
Ah. She is just talking to me.
She passed the Avatar on her way out. "Good luck, Twinkle Toes. Please take care of her for me."
She could feel his heartbeat, too. Strong, full of compassion.
"I'll do my best," he responded.
They stood at the impossibly small grave together, hand in hand. She hated today. Hated that the insufferably bright and cheery sun shone upon them, mocking their pain.
"I can't do this ever again."
Tenzin squeezed her hand. "You're strong, Lin. Stronger than you know. We're both going to get through this."
She jerked her hand out of his grip, sliding the ring off her finger and pressing it against his palm. "I'm sorry, but . . . no. I can't marry you, Tenzin."
"Lin. Please. Please, at least don't make that decision on a day like this."
She sighed, her shoulders slumping as she leaned into him, wrapping her arms around his waist. "I can't, Tenzin. I just can't."
"I can't talk to you when you're being like this," Tenzin said sharply, his airbending robes billowing out behind him as he swiftly withdrew from the room.
He had come to deliver her a letter from Suyin, but it only took five minutes for them to get into a fight these days.
She felt herself dissolve into sobs, ugly cries ripping from her throat and tears serving to drench her cheeks. She didn't know how to feel anymore. She thought that two years would somehow make the hurt disappear. Time had buried much of her former pain before, why was it so obstinately holding out on her now?
Tenzin wasn't the only one who couldn't talk to her. Her mother outright avoided her without even pretending she had a reason. Bumi and Kya treated her like she might either spontaneously grow fangs or else collapse into a puddle. All that was left was Aang.
Lin had never favored company to begin with, but now she felt isolated. Life had thrown her down a dark pit too deep to climb out of and too dark to see her own hand in front of her face.
When will it stop? When can I stop thinking about what happened?
She eyed the letter, lying in a would-be innocent position on the coffee table. She hadn't seen Suyin's handwriting in years now. Maybe she would have good news . . .
She ripped open the envelope, a small paper falling out bearing but a few lines.
You're an aunt now. We've decided to name him after my husband. His name is Bataar, Jr.
Lin held herself as she cried. She cried and cried until she could see light peeking from the spaces between her blinds.
Aang was gone.
They all knew it would be soon—he had been looking terrible for weeks now, besides his ominous babblings about a soon-to-be born girl in the water tribe.
And yet, no warning for death would ever be sufficient.
The overwhelming sense of loss pulled her further into the covers of her bed.
Her mother had been the one to deliver the news—she was terse, emotionless, and everything about her made Lin want to throw something at the wall.
No more, she decided. She would never speak to her mother again.
"You were right, Lin. This isn't going to work out between us."
The words still echoed in her head hours after the fact. She looked at Air Temple Island from the window of her apartment, torn about whether she should feel ashamed or elated at the fact that the damage to the island was visible from miles away. Maybe she wasn't good for much, but nobody could say she didn't leave a memorable exit.
She knew it was that young Air Acolyte who had caught Tenzin's eye.
He could claim they had been growing apart for years now, could cite 'different goals' as much as he wanted, but it was a lie, and both of them knew it. Pema was young, beautiful, and sweet—all the things she would never be, could never be.
She fingered the ring in her pocket. He insisted she keep it when she offered it back to him. It probably wouldn't make sense for him to use it again for his next proposal. And besides, while she'd never admit it to his face, between the two of them, it would take her much longer to move on. Perhaps he offered it to her as a token of good will, a peace offering; perhaps he offered it as a comfort object to carry her through the long string of nights she would now spend alone.
Whatever his intention, she didn't care.
Without a second thought, she dropped it from outside the window and didn't wait to watch for it to hit the street.
Being the child of a member of team avatar meant that her life was full of uncertainties, so much so that whenever something made sense or else remained constant, she clung to it with everything that she had.
She would repeat a mantra of all of the things she knew to be certain in her life on repeat to soothe her to sleep on nights like this one when insomnia plagued her.
She looked at her clock. 2:00 a.m.
Lin rocked herself back and forth and began her chant.
I am the daughter of Toph Beifong.
I have a half-sister named Suyin.
I am an earth bender and a metal bender.
I am chief of police in Republic City.
I will never love again.
I am the daughter of Toph Beifong.
I have a half-sister named Suyin.
I am an earth bender and a metal bender.
I am chief of police in Republic City.
I will never love again.
I am the daughter of Toph Beifong.
I have a half-sister named Suyin.
I am an earth bender and a metal bender.
I am chief of police in Republic City.
I will never love again.