"Are you just going to stare at me all day or are you going to take your clothes off? We have to get this done while our parents are still out, because your mother is nosy beyond all reason and my mom knows everything that is going on in the house."

Tenzin swallowed as he reached to untie his robe. "Could you be a little less romantic about this, Lin?" he tried to joke to the girl sprawled out naked in front of him, but it came out sounding far more nervous than he had wanted it to. Lin was the first girl he had ever seen naked, not counting the time he accidentally saw Kya coming out of a bath, and that was not the same thing at all. Lin normally looked so hard-edged, but with her hair in just a loose ponytail and her clothes discarded on the floor, she looked- touchable. So touchable that Tenzin was terrified to touch her.

He dropped the robe on the floor and stood at the foot of her bed shirtless. "Now what?"

"Maybe you should come down here," Lin said, crawling down the bed to where he stood. "We should probably kiss." She placed a hand on either side of Tenzin's waist, and he shivered. "You have kissed before, haven't you?"

"Of course I have," Tenzin said, and he leaned down to take her lips. He was unprepared for the sudden tug in which Lin pulled him on top of her. She parted her mouth and sucked on his bottom lip. He felt her tongue make contact with his teeth, and opened his mouth more. His fingers dug into the bare skin of her back and her breasts pressed up against his own chest and-

"Agh-gh, wait!" He pushed off of her, rolling to lay on his back beside her on the bed. His face felt hot as he tried to take control of his breathing. "Just- give me a moment."

Lin rolled onto her side and propped her head up with one elbow so that she could look at him. "Are you sure that you want to do this? You seem really nervous." Anyone else would have probably teased him at that moment, but Lin's face was blank and serious. She wasn't overly concerned, but she wasn't poking fun at him either. She was just...asking a question, and expecting a straight answer in return. For some reason, this calmed Tenzin.

"No, I definitely do," he said. "I guess I'm just a little worried about, you know. Doing it wrong. Embarrassing myself in front of you."

"We've known each other our entire lives," Lin said, sitting up. She reached back and pulled the ponytail out of her hair. Tenzin tried not to stare as the long black locks fell down her back and over her breasts. "What could you do to embarrass yourself?"

Tenzin felt himself turning red. "I don't know. That's the problem. I've never done this before, and I hate jumping into things that I'm not sure I know how to do." He sighed. "I mean, I barely got a proper sex talk. My dad just had some confusing speech about the hummingbee and the fire lily...what did your mother ever say?"

Her face scrunched up in disgust, the most animate expression she had made all day. "I got all the information I needed from books. If I ever had to have a conversation with my mother over such an intimate and personal thing, I think I'd retch," Lin said. "The only one who has ever attempted to breach that subject with me in any way is my grandmother, and she just said that nice girls save themselves for the marriage bed. Or else they end up all on their own, with babies they don't know the father of."

"...I'm sorry, Lin."

"I don't remember asking for your pity," she snapped. Lin had closed off; her body was turned away from him, rigid, arms crossed. Tenzin touched her shoulder lightly and she flinched.

"You know that whatever happened, I would never leave you alone. Right, Lin?"

"Spare me. I don't plan on having any of your airbender babies any time soon." Lin took a deep breath and turned back to him. The emotion and hardness that had been on her face moments before had dissipated, leaving a look of casual interest. She reached over and loosened the ties on Tenzin's pants for him, pulling them down. "So do you want to do this or not?"

"I want this."

She smiled now, a genuine one. It was small and disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, but Tenzin caught it. He pulled her into another kiss without warning, wrapping her up in his arms as she slid into his lap. He took the opportunity to run his hands through her loose hair as he brushed it aside to kiss down the side of her neck. She gasp a tiny gasp as he hit the top of her collarbone, which caused him to pause and look up with a smile.

"You're really beautiful."

Lin shook her head, pushing her neck back into Tenzin's face. "Don't say that. Just keep going."

He moved back up to her lips, pressing his against hers for moment, lightly, until she opened her mouth and deepened the kiss. They made out quietly, Lin grinding against his lap. Tenzin let his hands wander all over her, feeling from her backside, up her back, over her shoulders, down to her waist. She began to fall backwards, and he followed her as she spread out on her back, looking up at him with want-filled eyes that were still trying to maintain a semblance of composure. Tenzin felt the same. As he looked at her, he felt the words she had just told him not to say rising in his throat again.

"I'm sorry I called you beautiful," he said instead. "It felt-" His eyes were surveying every part of her. "Appropriate."

"It's okay," Lin said. She was smirking slightly. "It's just, for some unknown reason my mother never really put an emphasis on my looks. So it weirds me out to be complimented about it." She looked down to where his loosened slacks were slipping down his legs. "Kick those pants off the rest of the way and lets get moving."

"We should get dressed."

Tenzin rolled halfway over to look at the clock, and the small movement felt as if it required an unreasonable amount of energy. He and Lin had been lying next to each other, silent but comfortable, for at least a half hour since they had finished. He groaned at the time displayed on the clockface. He knew he had to get up and dressed, but his body just did not want to comply. He wanted to stay in the bed, lying down, Lin's ankles brushing his every so often.

"You're right," he mumbled, making no effort to move. "They should be back soon, and it would not be a pleasant night if they found us like this."

"Understatement of the year," Lin said. "Your mother would be enraged, my mother would be embarrassing, and your father would be planning our wedding."

"Fairly accurate."

Lin rolled over to face him so that they were almost nose to nose. Tenzin had the weird feeling that, now that they had accomplished what they set out to do, kissing her would, for some reason, be inappropriate. He also had the sinking feeling that he really wanted to, something he had not envisioned when they had planned all of this out.

"Just so you know," Lin spoke inches from his face. "I have no plans of marrying you. Or anyone, so don't feel bad."

"I know."

They hovered in silence and stillness for a moment. Then she leaned in and kissed him again, just a light pressure against his lips that Tenzin barely had time to recognize before it was gone again.