"What the hell was that? She literally chose to have breakfast with that man! Shame! Total shame on her! Ugh! He is slowly getting on my nerves. I swear, one more breakfast, or lunch, or dinner cancellation from her, I would literally rip his heart out, fry and cure it, and sell it as jerky. I swear!"
Tenzin was baffled. Literally. Hearing his eldest daughter rant about Lin was, for the first time, overwhelming. With the phone crunched up in the living room from the earlier phone call and a slab of rock cracking, he could see the frustration and impatience in his daughter. She literally is the very definition of frustrated.
Who could blame her? After the fifth, no, sixth time of getting a cancellation for their breakfast, Kim felt cheated and jealous. It was okay for the first three "I can't come. I have a breakfast with Liao." But when Lin came on the fourth and the fifth, Kim felt her mother was abusing her new found relationship. And now for the sixth, Kim knew inside she had the taste of her own medicine, her plan with her brother backfiring.
She sat across her father in the meditating pavilion and had the urge to channel her anger for her mother at the man trying to ignore her very hysterical voice. "Kim, you need to understand your mother," was his only reply to her long litany.
She was taken aback. "Wh-what?! Understand her?" She rose again and snapped her fingers, and Tenzin knew he's into another horrible, horrible response. "Do you, for the love of everything that is holy, hear yourself talking?"
Tenzin huffed. "Yes, I do, Kim."
"Dad, I love you, and I don't want to shout at you because that's not respectful," she slowly countered. "But right now, seeing you doing nothing to force mom to come here, I really want to punch you in the face."
No, this has gone too far for Tenzin and he could not help himself but stand up. "That's enough," he snapped in a dangerous tone. "Don't make me ground you like last time, young lady." That set Kim quiet. She tried to open her mouth but the stare was intense. Who could forget "last time"?
Kim is compulsive, alright. She wants everything to go in her way and a compromise with her was rare. Tenzin knew this and he was resilient. He knows how much Kim resembled Katara's attitude. But at that time, when Kim tore the divorce papers, Tenzin had no choice. It cost them another few thousand yuans and she was grounded for three months. Tenzin was mad at himself for having treated her that way and Kim instilled that her father really wanted to be divorced from Lin. They hadn't been the same until that day eleven years later when they arrived in Republic City.
"Now," Tenzin returned to his calm voice. "You need to respect your mother's wish to not have breakfast with us. She's a grown woman, and like you said, an equally single woman."
Kim sighed and sat down. "Yeah…I regret saying that. It's too much." She shook her head to show her dismay. "I don't get it. She…what does she see in him?"
Tenzin held out his hand and offered it to Kim. "Come. Walk with me by the shore, Kim." Tenzin led her down the shores and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. He felt calm and contended with her. He missed the long walks with Kim and it was refreshing for him. "It was your idea, Kim," He suddenly said.
Kim suddenly looked at Tenzin. "What?"
"It was your idea, wasn't it? You set your mother up with Mr. Yu."
Kim was blown with the accusation. She was…blown. "Where in the world did you get that?"
"I'm your father," he countered with amusement. "I know."
Kim snorted at the statement. "I'm your daughter; does that also mean it's true that you're dead jealous?" The counter accusation came out of nowhere and the lump in his throat was swallowed abruptly and painfully. "I knew it," Kim added.
In the middle of their walk, Tenzin stopped. He didn't deny the presumption, nor did her confirm it. But at that moment, he stopped and turned to the sea. Kim wondered what was wrong and in a dreamy dazed manner, Tenzin spoke. "I proposed to your mother at this exact spot. It was her birthday and I was so nervous to ask her."
Kim scoffed. "And you're telling me this because?"
"Because even if I absent-mindedly walk along the shore, I always stop at this spot." He chuckled and turned to his daughter. "What do you think am I telling you?"
She bit her lip and smiled. "Confirmation of what I said earlier?"
He gave no reply but smiled back at her. He turned around and offered his hand again. "Let's go back, Kim. Your brother would be arriving soon."
Xian is having the most boring lunch in his life. All he hears is Liao Yu yapping on and on about how good he is at business. His constant laughs at his own jokes and his piggish snort was mind-boggling for Xian. But the younger man was taught manners, so his head was constantly nodding as if to let the lame jokes and self-appreciation sink in. His lower lip would also pout a little to give the impression of "I didn't know that until you told me" to have a more realistic approach.
"Young man, if you didn't set me up with that dinner with your mother, I might be just admiring from afar," Liao stated in pure confidence and pride. Xian averted his gaze to his mother who was blushing. For all the better reaction Lin Beifong could have at that moment, she chose to blush.
If I had the chance Mr. Yu I would have peed in your coffee this morning, he so freely thought. But instead he said, "Well, what do you know?"
"Life is, indeed, surprising," the older man pressed on. Xian took a bite at the orange chicken in front of him and chewed sloppily.
"Mmm! This is good chicken," he said out of context and got a questioning look from his mother. "You know Mr. Yu-
"Please, call me Liao."
"Liao, I have never had this good chicken from the academy." The couple waited for Xian's next line but he didn't give any and continued on chewing. Wow. I do have a talent of silencing self-absorbed men, he thought. Liao cleared his throat and went to continue talking about the parking tickets he got from Xian's mother and the dates they had prior to their lunch which clearly put the young man off. Lin noticed the sarcasm at the approving gestures.
After the drive to the pier and boarding the ferry, it was Lin's time to talk. "Hey, kid. How are you?"
Xian stared off to the waiting island ahead of them and exhaled. "Same as any man after a hearty lunch: full to the brim."
"You had fun?" she asked.
Xian grimaced and gave a nod. "Absolutely. That clown you hired was hilarious."
A shook of her head and a rub across her face showed Lin she wasn't amused. Not to any extent. She raised an eyebrow and clapped her son's back. "Xian…"
The young man countered with a more insistent nod and approached the side beam to lean onto. Looking at his mother he quipped, "I did find him interesting, mother. Very unlike your type."
"Drop it-
"What party company did you find him? He's really, really good. So…full of himself," he pressed on at the chance he's getting. He regretted it, he confessed to himself. The silly arrangement was stupid and childish. It was a double-bladed knife. The more they push their father's jealousy buttons, the more their mother would be closer to the proud businessman.
"You are being judgemental," she snapped at her son. She doesn't know how to convince the young man to get to agree with her decision. "Look, you set me up with him. You booked that dinner and now you're telling me that you don't like him. I said no the first time and you complained. Now that I'm with the man, you're still complaining. Where do I put myself, Xi?"
He didn't answer and looked back to that night they felt so proud of themselves. Kim was so certain of their plan. He was so okay with their plan. Now that they have this awkward relationship with their mother for dating a man they completely set her up with, guilt swallowed him up. "I heard you cancelled six breakfasts with Kim and dad."
Lin turned her back onto him and said, "I had plans with Liao before they even invited me. I know they just did that because Pema and the airbender kids are at the South Pole."
He crossed his arms and turned to his mother. "I want you to put yourself in that place we want you to be, mom: at the breakfast table with dad and us. That's the answer to your question."
The ferry slowed and came to a stop and the air acolytes disembarked one by one. "All of a sudden, you seem to forget you have your own family," Xian felt himself spit the words before getting off the ferry himself and leaving his mother to hopefully dwell in guilt.
Tenzin sensed a quarrel between Xian and Lin at the sight of the scowl on his son's and his long strides, as if to get away from his mother as quickly as he could. He met him half-way and a concerned look was on his face. "Had a fight with your mother?"
Xian embraced his father and as he broke free, he answered with, "Talk to her. You both need it," and walked away to greet his sister. Tenzin waited for Lin to reach him before walking with her to their previous residence. He didn't say anything and she did the same, obviously wanting to get away from a possible issue of inappropriate relationships. The silence didn't last when Tenzin pulled her into the deserted gazebo and looked at her intently.
"What's happening to you?" he asked point-blank.
She roughly pulled her arm away from his grip and immediately crossed her arms to her chest. "It's none of your business, Tenzin."
"Hmm…" he huffed. "It is my business since it affects my daughter and my son." He yanked her and demanded her to face him. "It is my business because it is about you."
It was Lin's time to huff the irony she felt. "If this is eleven years ago, it would be your business. But right now, you have nothing to do with my relationship with Liao. That's that, Tenzin."
"I'm not talking about your relationship with that man," he snapped. His mixed feelings in his gut were making him shake and the urge to demand Lin from seeing Liao Yu was intensely overwhelming. He was even unconsciously bending the air around them which caused a few twigs and dried leaves to rise in the air. "I do not have any interest with your relationship, Lin. I am just concerned with your constant absence from meals with our daughter for the past week."
He stopped himself from getting out of control and took a deep breath. Lin followed suit. "I know I missed Kim's invitations but-
"You seem to put more importance to that man than-
"Shut up, Tenzin!" She lost it. All her self control was lost when her outbreak came out of her. It was like one of those arguments that they used to have that actually led to either a walk out from her or a very bitter exchange of words. "I needed to get away from you and that was the only thing I could think of." Her confession was now laid in front of him and it made him wince. He walked to her and she backed away until she bumped one of the posts of the gazebo. He placed both hands on either sides of her and trapped her. "Stop it, Tenzin," she whispered.
"Look at me," he said. It wasn't an order but a request. "Please look at me."
She obliged and mentally scolded herself. After a few seconds she looked away, fearing that if she continues, she would lose herself and melt. Still, even after looking away, the intensity was still felt, the magnitude making her light-headed. She shifted her gaze to his mouth and her thumb ran across his lower lip.
He slowly neared his face toward hers at the gesture and both knew what would happen next. Their lips met and she welcomed them without question and the arms that trapped her were wrapped around her in a tight embrace as he tried his hardest to deepen their encounter. She felt all the air leave her and her arms were soon encasing his neck. They broke apart, breathing in each other's scent, logic and morals slowly creeping in again.
She was the first to push him away. "This didn't happen," she declared before wiping her mouth and walking out on him. He didn't stop her and he didn't say a word, but both knew, what they did was wrong although every cell in their body was screaming for more because it felt so right.
A/N: So here's that update and I hope you enjoyed. Until the next update or one-shot...or whatever.
