Author's note: Hey guys... I gave the breakup a shot. Prepare your feels. Sorry if there are any grammatical errors or spelling mistakes, I didn't read through this closely. R&R!

I do not own these characters, LoK or AtLA.

She was who she was, and she couldn't help it. She wasn't an ordinary woman; she was her career, her legacy. Her heart was forged out of stone, out of the metal that she bended at the young age of 13. It defined her. And it had been since she was a little girl; she grew up with expectations, pressure and high standards, high goals. She dreamt of making tunnels in the earth, of splitting mountains in two pieces, of chasing criminals' day in and day out, manipulating metalcables and put on her own, special made uniform that fit her perfectly. She dreamt of sitting behind her mother's desk, giving the orders. She dreamt of hearing the metal and the earth sing. Boys or marriage or children was never a part of the plan.

When she and Tenzin happened, she stumbled into it, literally, suspicious and baffled. She felt as blind as her mother. After a while she discovered that her feelings had a root, with an anchorage deep, deep inside of her. Deeper than she would have allowed it to be, if only she had been observant and known what love could do with someone's soul. In every other aspect her heart was well guarded, but Tenzin had managed to slip right through. She figured that it couldn't be so bad, being in love, loving someone more and more for every day that passed by.

When she realized, in her early twenties, what being with Tenzin meant, if their relationship survived and moved forward into the future, she mercilessly cursed herself for being so ignorant as a teenager. Of course she had known that Tenzin was the last airbender, but she hadn't understood what it would mean for her. If she only had put a lease on her feelings earlier, she could have avoided the pain that she knew was yet to come. Only 23 years old, she couldn't imagine living her life without him, even if she never said it out loud. But this was the future, she discovered soon enough. She made a decision that year; she should just keep going, because what could a couple of more years hurt?

The years passed, and sometimes she thought about breaking it off with him, but kept pushing at it.

Eventually time seemed to catch up with Tenzin too. And she couldn't blame anyone but herself really. She had turned her back to him every time he mentioned it and refused to acknowledge that her selfish escape fed a crack that slowly had started growing between them. Lin Beifong was a lot of things, but not a coward. Except when it came to him... She was afraid for the never ending feelings she harbored for him, afraid that her love would kill her; that her love would change her and turn her into that kind of woman she despised so badly, that her love would make her sacrifice everything she had been working for, for so many years. She was trying to protect herself, too scared to give herself to him fully, but too frightened, too desperate, to leave, and that was what drove them apart.

It took him years to gather the courage to bring the topic up. When he did, she avoided him by rushing off to the station, pulling a dangerous 24 hour shift. When she sat in her office at the end of the day, covering her pulsing, bleeding cheek with a now red cloth, she desperately tried to come up with something that would mend the hole she probably had left in Tenzin's heart the night before. She couldn't lose him, but she couldn't give him what he wanted either. She was the chief of police, she was Lin Beifong. A child shouldn't been born into her world, it wasn't fair to anyone. She couldn't understand how her own mother had cooped all the years when Lin was young. Lin had been taken hostage, had gotten injured and almost died several times… Because she was Toph Beifong's daughter. No, she couldn't possibly bring herself to carry a child and let it face her world, knowing what she knew. And she couldn't give up her career now; she had just reached her goal. She had been chief for only a year. But how was she supposed to tell Tenzin?

That night when she came home, he was waiting for her with dinner, tea, a hot bath, everything. He was so perfect that it actually hurt her and left a bitter taste in her mouth, because another woman would appreciate that sort of thing so much more than she did. She didn't feel worthy of him. But he acted as if it was the most natural thing in the world, and that their almost-conversation about children hadn't happened at all and went on and on about the two deep wounds that now marred her cheek. She didn't know if she should cry or be relieved, but something had changed between them, she could feel it. But they both pretended everything was fine, that their legacies weren't agonizingly slow tearing them apart. None of them wanted that, and they both understood what ignoring the problem meant, but neither could bring themselves to leave before it killed some part of them, their love was too strong. Or they were just too scared to leave the person they had spent the majority of their lives with.

They were as close to being happy as they could be for 6 months. And during that time Lin spent many nights lying awake in bed, staring at the stars outside the window while her heart tried to beat its way out of her chest, one of Tenzin's arms holding a tight, protective grip around her waist. It didn't matter how much she tried to find a solution, because there was none. She had looked at the problem from every aspect, from every single point of view and angle dozens of times. They were slowly heading for a cliff.

Something that made those sleepless nights even worse was Tenzin's hand, unconsciously placing itself on her flat stomach while he slept, if he didn't keep her in place with his entire arm. Every time it made Lin's breath hitch and she could feel the tears burning in her eyes, a hard knot growing in her chest. This action was repeated several times, more and more frequently. Every time the knot grew, and it never left, never disappeared. She dragged it around everywhere she went. She knew how much he needed children, how much he actually wanted them. But stubborn as she was, she tried to ignore it, couldn't bear the thought of them not being together because of such a silly thing as her fear.

After those 6 months, the knot in Lin's chest had expanded and she couldn't take it anymore. When she came home after a particularly rough shift at the station, she slammed the door shut behind her and rushed into her small bathroom. Feeling tears trickle down her porcelain skin she sat down on the cold floor, leaning against the bathtub. Vicious sobs worked their way up from her lungs, escaping through her mouth, leaving her breathless. Her entire chest burned, it felt like someone tried to smother her and the tears just continued gushing from her eyes. When she started to see black dots dancing before her eyes she could feel the nausea rising in her chest and she flung herself across the room, reaching the toilet just in time for the gastric acid to disappear in the water beneath her, instead of on the floor. She hadn't eaten anything since the small lunch she'd been able to force down, and in that moment she was relieved. She hated throwing up with food in the system.

Still crying, heaving strained breaths she rose and flushed, grimacing at the effort it took to do the simple chore. She turned around to rinse her mouth with cold water and bended off her armor. She was dirty, sweaty and had several small bloody, soggy cuts on her legs and arms that she didn't bother cleaning; she, with a runny nose, wet cheeks, heart pounding hard in her chest, cuts, bruises, messy hair and fully clothed, collapsed on her bed, pulling the cover over her worn out body. Warm and safe under its darkness she tried to get her thoughts together. She couldn't do this anymore. Today, while on a mission, she almost died because she was so distracted by the lump in her heart and the imaginary weight on her shoulders, that she didn't see the earth coming for her on her left side. Saikhan had knocked her out of the way but got his shoulder busted when he couldn't dodge the boulder in time. She had to deal with it somehow; it was dangerous for both her and her men. She blamed herself for Saikhan's injury and uncharacteristically apologized to him all the way back to the station in the airship. He'd shrugged it off and said he was fine, even if he wasn't going to be able to work for at least a month, but his reassurance did nothing to kill her guilt.

Lin's fear for what a child would mean had reached dangerous levels. It had gone so far that she couldn't do her job properly, and risking her life because she was distracted, and that without actually having the child. She couldn't risk her life on mission because she was worried, not knowing if her child was safe. She couldn't risk her life on mission because she was worried that it wasn't sure if she would be home for dinner ever again. She couldn't risk her life on mission, knowing that Tenzin waited for her at home. She couldn't fathom the idea of breaking his and their child's heart if she didn't make it through a shift, because it always was a possibility. The amount of injuries she had sustained, and the scars they left behind, was proof enough. In her mind she saw a grief-struck Tenzin in black robes, holding a young girl with black hair and grey eyes, crying, in his arms, standing above a hole in the ground with a closed casket in it. No, she couldn't do that. Not to herself, not to Tenzin and most certainly not to a child. If she did that she would be selfish. Because if she died, she would be the dead one, she wouldn't be the heartbroken one, left behind not knowing how to live on. But how would Tenzin react if he heard her thoughts now? What would he say? Would he agree or object? She knew he solemnly didn't just want children, he needed them. But she couldn't give him that, and she loved him more than anything in the world. She would do anything for him, for his happiness, and if that meant he wouldn't be with her, so be it.

Lin slowly came to terms with what her realization meant, she stayed awake many hours, trying to strengthen herself for what was about to come. She had to do it soon; she couldn't keep him back anymore. He needed children and he needed them as soon as possible, the press and the White Lotus had started questioning their relationship. As hard as it was, she decided she would have to… Leave, him, tomorrow, or rather today.

With a feeling of her heart being stabbed by a knife, Lin fell asleep with the tears still streaming down her face.

Sitting at her desk, staring at a cup of cold tea she hadn't consumed, Lin's determination started to falter. Glancing up at the clock on her wall she sighed heavily. He was late, and Tenzin was never late to their lunch dates. Coming to the office the same morning she'd looked more disheveled than the officers had ever seen her, usually her hair was clean, neatly pinned, her armor polished and her professional mask on. Today she had come in with her hair unwashed, but still in its bun, unpolished armor (she had hurried to clean the worst dirt off), her face showing obvious, but distinct, traces of crying and a sleepless night. No one had said anything, they didn't dare, never did, but her sour mood had effectively scared them off to work before they were given the chance to speculate in what had kept their chief awake all night, because it wasn't councilman Tenzin for sure. At least not in the way they used to notice it.

A soft knock on her door startled Lin out of her thoughts and she flicked her wrist, unlocking it. Tenzin came in, carrying two paper bags with lunch. He looked stressed and uncomfortable but Lin figured he had just had a rough meeting with the council. He sat down in the chair in front of her, starting to unpack the boxes with food. Lin leaned forward, sniffing the air, her stomach growling. She opened a box and to her delight if was her favorite, beef with water chestnuts in sauce.

"Thank you." She said lovingly before she realized that she would have to stop doing that. She swallowed hard, suddenly not hungry.

"Tenzin I…" He looked up at her, food in his mouth. "We need to talk." She finished.

He swallowed, suddenly looking sheepish. He almost looked guilty.

"Yes, we do."

"I think we… What?" Lin asked, surprised that he felt the need to talk too. Why did he looks so guilty and sad? She shook her head, a suspicious feeling settling in her gut. She wanted to know what he was about to say.

"You first." She encouraged.

Tenzin put his box of vegetarian dumplings down, clearing his throat and fumbling nervously with his hands.

"Well, Lin. I, eh, uhm…" He stammered.

"Tenzin!" she barked at him. She hated when he stammered.

"I think we should part ways." He confessed.

Lin's jaw dropped. She was not prepared for a breakup. Well, she was prepared for her breaking up with him, not the other way around. He looked away, staring at something outside her only window. Small vibrations of air tickled Lin's exposed neck and she recognized it as one of Tenzin's traits. He always airbended, unconsciously, when he was nervous. However, he didn't do it often, and almost always when there was something he tried to hide. Lin's suspicion became stronger and she eyed him carefully. His nervousness, his guilty eyes that couldn't bring themselves to look at her and the tension that radiated from his body had her heart thumping wildly in her chest, suddenly afraid of the reason why he behaved so unlike himself.

"Why?" she asked. She couldn't keep the question down and bit her tongue as the words escaped her mouth. Did she really want to know the answer?

Tenzin didn't answer immediately; instead he started moving around on the chair as if sitting on pins. Lin gathered up her walls, building a shelter around her heart and attempted a hard mask.

"Spit it out Tenzin." She said through gritted teeth. She was sure, and her instincts told her that she wouldn't like what she was about to hear.

"I kissed Pema." he whispered quietly. It was barely loud enough for her to hear.

But she heard. Lin sat, frozen, in her chair. The first emotion she could register was betrayal. After that came the chock, and then came the anger. She had tortured herself for 6 months, trying to find a solution to their problems; she had finally decided to leave the love of her life to make him happy. And while she slowly was dying inside during those months, he had kissed another woman. There wasn't enough space in Lin's body to contain her rage and betrayed feelings. She stood up slowly, so angry that her arms trembled and that it made her body stiff. She was afraid that if she moved too quickly, she wouldn't be able to control herself and hit Tenzin.

When she moved Tenzin tore his gaze away from the window and looked up at her, scared of her reaction.

"Get. Out." Lin hissed.

"Lin…" Tenzin pleaded.

"Get the fuck out of here Tenzin!"

"Lin! Please let me explain!"

Tenzin had stood up and begged that she would let him explain, but Lin didn't want to hear it. It must have been clear in her eyes because Tenzin fell silent and his shoulders sank deeper down. He walked across the room towards the door and cast a last glance behind him at her, still standing behind the massive, robust metal desk with a murderous look in her eyes and her hands in fists at her sides. He walked out and closed the door behind him.

Years later Lin still can't stand Tenzin's presence. She still feels betrayed, furious and hurt. That day… He had made it seem like he never loved her in the first place, compared to the fact that she was about to break up with him only because she wanted him to be happy. It made her feel even worse, her confidence and pride was hurt, badly, and shortly after the incident, Lin promised herself that she would never open up to a man that way again.

Author's note: Inspired by the song "Seen It All Before" that was written by Bring Me The Horizon. At first I thought I would write this completely "based" on this song, but as it turns out, I didn't. But I still wanted you guys to see the lyrics, so yeah, here they are:

Every second's soaked in sadness

Every weekend is a war

And I'm drowning in the déjà vu

We've seen it all before

I don't wanna do this by myself

I don't wanna live like a broken record

I've heard these lines a thousand times

And I've seen it all before

Are we close enough?

There is something I must confide

I think we've lost our touch

There's no sparkle in those eyes

What an awful mess I've made

There's nothing left to save

I'm sorry, no... it's not enough

We shouldn't feel a love so painfully

It hurts right to the touch

I know it stings, I know this cuts

And I wish I could agree with you

But fuck this love, it's not enough

It's not enough...

It's not enough...