AN: Hello everyone!

This is just a short one-shot I came up with in my wee brain after reading the wonderful story 'Proud' written by 'thelittleturttleduck'. It is a companion fic to 'Proud', however I don't really think you need to read it to get what's going on.

But I strongly recommend you read it anyway!

Just some quick things you should no though: Lin and Tenzin are fourteen and they are a a Fire-Nation party. This is pretty much the start of their relationship.

Enjoy!

-ZR

If Tenzin thought he couldn't feel more uncomfortable during this night, he was wrong.

When the ball had first started, everything seemed to be going well between him and Lin. They had walked around the crowded room, packed full of high officials and new recruits, occasionally making small talk with someone. But after about fifteen minutes, Tenzin had made the horrible decision of inviting Lin to a walk around the palace gardens.

There was an awkward silence between the two as they exited the palace doors and exposed themselves to the warm, Fire-Nation weather. Tenzin imagined how much more unpleasant the heat would be if there wasn't the nice, cool breeze cutting through the air.

They had walked around aimlessly or the first few minutes before he suggested they go sit on a bench next to some rose bushes. His only response was a slight nod from Lin.

"So," Tenzin began once they were both seated. "It's a nice night out."

Lin nodded. "Yeah, I guess it's rather nice weather considering we're in the Fire-Nation."

"Yeah…" Tenzin's voice trailed off uneasily and he nervously turned his attention to the flowers next to him.

After a few more minutes of awkward silence Lin cleared her throat. "There are a lot of stars out tonight aren't there?"

Tenzin looked up at the bright clusters. "Yes, there are."

Lin continued to gaze at the sky in what looked to be wonder and disbelief. "How many do you think there are, Tenzin? How long do you think it would take to count them all?"

Tenzin shook his head. "Lin, that is highly impossible." He said bluntly. "It would take a lifetime to count them all and there is no way you would be able to keep track of all of the stars you already counted, not to mention that even if you could keep track, it would take a lifetime to count them all including the ones that you cannot see. And besides, the sky would change into morning before you were done and they wouldn't even be visible anymore."

Lin turned to Tenzin with a look of annoyance on her pale face. "Really? Must you always be a party pooper?"

Tenzin felt heat flood his face and he turned away ashamedly. At that moment he silently wished that he could be smooth and cool like his older brother.

Lin sighed and turned her attention back to the sky which made Tenzin even tenser. He was starting to feel like he had ruined his chances with Lin in one night.

Suddenly, Tenzin got a bold idea and decided to try it before the atmosphere could get any more awkward. (Although, he believed that was impossible.) With a swift swipe of his hand, Tenzin used airbending to cut the stem of a nearby flower and caused it to float up into his palm.

"Um…here." Tenzin said and placed the tulip in Lin's hand.

Lin instantly ripped her gaze off of the sky and stared at the flower. At first, Tenzin was pretty sure she looked angry, but after a few moments, she began to delicately finger the petals.

"Um…thank you." She said without directly looking at him and Tenzin felt like he had just been awarded a million yuans.

"So," Tenzin began with a new sense of courage in him. "Want to walk around a little more?"

Lin shrugged and stood up, still holding gently onto the flower. "That sounds good."

Tenzin smiled and followed her deeper into the garden.

"You know," Lin said kicking a small rock around as they walked. "The Fire-Nation really knows how to throw a nice party."

"I suppose so."

"So, does your dad ever throw any parties on that island of yours?"

Tenzin grinned. "The occasional dance parties he throws can get pretty wild."

They both shared a laugh.

"I'm sure they can." She chuckled. "Mom does call him Twinkletoes for a reason 'ya know."

Tenzin smiled. "I know."

Tenzin could feel the air growing colder as they continued to walk and he briefly wondered if they should go back inside but the he really didn't want to disturb the comfortable silence the two had settled in. It was far nicer than the awkward one.

"Tenzin," Lin said eventually. "Can I ask you a question?"

Tenzin immediately nodded, excitement growing in him that she was talking to him again- even if his emotionless face didn't express it.

"Do you promise to answer it truthfully?"

Tenzin didn't hesitate. "I promise."

Lin continued to kick her rock for a few more seconds before asking her question. "Why did you ask me to come here with you?"

Tenzin was not expecting that question. "Well..." Tenzin gulped. "Because I like you."

Lin eyed him skeptically before responding. "Why?"

Great. Now Tenzin was forced to list reasons.

"Well," Tenzin started uneasily. "Because um…your one of my best friends and I...think you're really nice to be around."

"Um, okay…"

Tenzin mentally slapped himself. He knew she was probably expecting a compliment or something sweet. Once he had heard Bumi say that Ursa was pretty, and she practically had a permanent blush stuck on her face for the rest of the week. Tenzin knew he should say something like that, but he figured that however he said it, it would just turn out awfully wrong.

As Tenzin frantically thought of a cover-up, he noticed that Lin was paying more attention to her rock, and he felt the awkward silence return.

Wanting desperately to save their night, Tenzin hastily spit out the words, "Not to mention, you're really pretty," and watched as Lin's face went red.

Lin stuttered for a few seconds before gently nudging Tenzin in the side. He took that as a good sign.

"Well, we should probably get going back inside now." Lin suggested.

Tenzin nodded but before he followed her, he decided to take another bold risk.

As cautiously as possible, Tenzin reached for Lin's pale hand with the speed of a turttleduck. Tenzin figured that so far, everything else he had thought he would regret turned out well, so was pretty positive that holding Lin's hand would too.

But boy was he wrong.

The second Tenzin's fingers had brushed hers, she spun her head around towards him so fast he thought she could've gotten whiplash.

In one swift motion, a giant rock form was spiked out of the ground, and into Tenzin's chest, causing him to fly backward from the impact and slam into a tree, head-first.

After Tenzin had hit the ground, he could see a fuzzy image of Lin storm off towards the palace looking angrier than ever.

Tenzin sighed. He had blown it.

"Tenzin!" Aang called running towards the hurt boy, closely followed by Kya. "Tenzin are you okay?!"

Tenzin groaned. They had probably seen the whole thing.

Tenzin sat up against the tree and Aang and his sister crowded around him worriedly.

"What happened? What's up with Lin?" Kya questioned quickly.

Tenzin was about to answer when his father cut in. "That's beside the point. Are you hurt, Tenzin?"

Tenzin shook his head miserably.

"No; she hurt my feelings more than my body."

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

Lin's fists were clenched so tight that her knuckles were turning white and her hands were losing circulation. She didn't care though. All she cared about at the moment was getting as far away from Tenzin as possible.

Lin knew she was probably acting irrational, but so many emotions were swirling through her head right now, it would be as hard as taming a tornado if she attempted to think straight.

And so Lin tried her best not to think at all.

As she stormed back to the palace, she desperately tried to keep her thoughts focused on finding her parents. That way, she would be able to feign illness or tiredness and they would take her back home where she wouldn't have to face the young bald monk again.

Well, for as long as time would allow.

But as she walked, Lin found that it was getting harder and harder to ignore the tingling feeling in her left hand- the one Tenzin had touched- and so she squeezed it tighter until she could see it tint purple.

Lin didn't know what was wrong with her. She was acting so strange, so foreign to herself that she wondered if she was going crazy.

Why had Tenzin caused her to feel so flustered? He was just the dopey kid that she used to practice her metalbending on at the park, and the kid her and his siblings would team up against to humiliate. He was just Tenzin. But if he was just the same, why was she acting so different.

After a few more furious steps towards the palace, Lin spotted her 'Uncle' Aang and Kya rush out to Tenzin's aid. That caused her to glance in the boy's direction.

He was sitting under the tree she had earthbended him into, and he was holding onto his head with his hands and burring his face into his knees that were tightly curled up into him.

Suddenly Lin felt a pang of guilt in her chest. She had not wanted to hurt him at the time; she just didn't want him to hold her hand. Or, at least that's what she thought at the time.

Thinking back, Lin didn't really know what she had thought at the time. It was such a blur to her now; one moment they were planning on going back inside and the next Tenzin was flying fast through the air towards a tree.

The happenings between those were the most blurry but there was thing Lin was sure she remembered clearly. She had been shocked.

Not shocked as in surprised, but as in electrocuted- or, at least it felt that way.

The second Tenzin's fingers had just barely found hers, she immediately felt a jolt rush up her spine and she pulled away instantly, her next brash reaction punching into the air and creating a rock that pushed Tenzin away.

Lin leaned against the palace wall when she reached it. Suddenly she felt tired and completely annoyed with herself at the same time. She silently wished that it was herself who was earthbended to a tree.

"Lin?"

Lin jerked her head up instantly at the voice, even though she already knew who it was.

"Hi Dad," Lin said quietly and tried to make herself appear relatively normal feeling. "How's the party"

"Where's Tenzin?" Her father asked almost too knowingly, avoiding her previous question.

Lin shrugged hoping it looked convincing to her father.

"I feel sick, can we leave now?"

The Duke nodded, not even hesitating a second. Lin knew her father was already aware of what had happened. He always seemed to know things before the news actually reached his ears. But Lin was grateful for this now because she wouldn't have to actually explain anything until they got home.

With one last glance at Tenzin, Lin followed her father back to the crowed party.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

The Duke sat quietly in the living room of the large apartment him and his small family lived in. He was attempting to read a newspaper, but his thoughts were in the bedroom across the hall with his daughter. He knew she was pretending to be sick as an excuse to leave the ball. But The Duke didn't mind. He simply went along with what she said and had informed his wife that he was taking her home. Toph told him she was going to stay behind and 'straighten up Twinkletoes and his Sugar Plum Princess accomplice'.

The Duke stared at his daughter's bedroom door blankly. He could see her bedroom light peeking out from underneath, and although his original plan was to wait until he saw it go out, implying that she was asleep, he assumed that with everything she had on her mind sleep wasn't going to come easily.

The Duke sighed tiredly as he folding his newspaper and stood up from the couch stretching. He wasn't really sure if Lin would even want to talk right now, but he decided that it was worth a try.

"Lin?" The door squeaked slightly when he pushed it open, only a crack.

Lin was sitting up in her bed, one hand gently smoothing her light green bedspread with her fingers and her matching light green eyes staring blankly down at her hand. The Duke tried to read her expression, looking for something other than sadness, but he found none.

Accepting that she was not going to respond to him, The Duke slowly made his way over to her bed and took a silent seat next to her. Lin didn't even acknowledge him.

After a few silent minutes, The Duke reached over and grabbed his daughter's pale hand from where it was on the bed.

"Hey," The Duke said and waited for her to meet his eyes. He had to wait a few moments but he would rather wait than force his daughter to talk right now. When she finally did, he talked quietly, "You can talk to me."

Lin nodded and looked away. The Duke knew his daughter had a habit of keeping things to herself, mainly things that triggered her emotions or made her upset. If the Duke had learned anything during his years of being Lin's dad, it was that she thought crying made her seem weak, and that you should never push her to do something she didn't want to. But he would never do that anyway.

"Hey Dad?" Lin asked after a moment of silence.

"Yes?"

Lin sighed and continued. "Did you… hear what happened tonight?"

The Duke nodded slowly and carefully watched his daughter for any sign of reaction. Lin just sat there expressionlessly.

The Duke watched his daughter for a few more minutes before gently placing a hand on her back. "It's okay Lin."

Her father's words broke her. Lin threw herself at him and buried her face in his shoulder and started to cry.

"Dad," She sniffled. "I messed up. I didn't mean to hurt Tenzin, I just…just…" Lin's voice cracked and she buried her face deeper into her father's shirt that was growing wet with tears.

"You were scared?" The Duke suggested softly, wrapping his arms around her and she nodded. "I understand."

"Now what do I do?" Lin asked quietly. "He's probably mad at me, and I'm probably in trouble for earthbending at him; aren't I?"

Her dad chuckled. "Nah, you're not in trouble. Actually, I think Aang and Kya are the ones in trouble."

"I wouldn't be surprised." Lin laughed and wiped a tear off her face. "Those two snoopers."

Lin pulled away and wiped her eyes with her sleeve and looked up at her dad. "I should probably say I'm sorry to Tenzin, shouldn't I dad?"

The Duke nodded wordlessly and smiled.

Lin raised an eyebrow, "Should I…hold his hand too?"

The Duke laughed. "Not if you don't want to."

Lin nodded. "Thanks, Dad."

"Anytime Lin,"

Lin smiled and glanced down at her left hand. Her dad always knew what to say to make her feel better. She decided that the next time she saw Tenzin; she would make things right again.