She was here to pick up something for her mother.

Or at least, that's what Lin told herself as the sentries of the White Lotus allowed her past the entrance to the home of the Avatar and his family. With the recent uptick of crimes in the city, Toph had been so busy at work that Aunt Katara had kindly offered to do grocery shopping so that they wouldn't have to worry about it. Lin, being the dutiful daughter and goddaughter that she was, had graciously decided to come over to Air Temple Island herself after she was done with classes for the day, to pick up the groceries and personally thank her Aunt for her assistance.

Her presence had nothing to do with the fact that the last time she bumped into Kya— who happened to be studying at Yu Dao University as well, albeit in a different programme— the water bender had happened to mention that her younger brother Tenzin would be returning home over the weekend from his travels abroad. Nope, it had absolutely nothing to do with that at all, she insisted to herself. And it was certainly not connected to why she had spent more time than usual when getting ready earlier that morning.

As she passed through the foyer, she found that the usually bustling character of the island didn't seem to be present today. In fact, there didn't seem to be anyone home at all. Aunt Katara must still be on her way home, Lin thought to herself. Her aunt always took the time to personally greet everyone, whenever she went to the markets. Now that all her children had grown up and left the nest (for the most part, at least), there was less of a reason for her to rush home early, as she used to do when Lin was much younger.

As she neared the hallway that led to Tenzin's rooms, thinking fondly of all the times she used to rush in unannounced and annoy him when they were kids, a faintly shocking noise led her to stop dead in her tracks and stare astonishedly towards the direction of his bedroom. Her stomach dropped, and her heart felt like it was leaping up right into her throat, as Lin could make out an almost inaudible grunt coupled with wet, slick sounds that could only really be associated with one thing.

His door was slightly ajar, reasonably just enough to make him visible if she moved even a quarter of an inch forward. The thought of it warmed her, just as it equally made her incurably nervous.

What was she supposed to do? Just walk past and sit in the living room until he was done?

Lin felt that she knew herself quite well, and she couldn't pass this opportunity up. She could readily admit it now, half the reason as to why she came over was to eventually bump into him. Now she had found actually found him, literally years since their last meeting and the realisation of her crush on him, and he was doing exactly what her teenage self had flustered over the mere possibility of. There was never going to be another opportunity like this.

She had absolutely no clue what to do, when suddenly, she found herself staring at a naked version of Tenzin.

The younger airbender was leaning against the pillows on his bed, head thrown back, collarbone heaving as he stroked himself. His mouth was slightly open, breathing harshly, the veins of his forearms protruding strikingly as his arm moved up and down. He looked more gorgeous than the last time she saw him, more than all of the times in which she dreamt of him. Lin forcefully closed her eyes at once, the image of what she had seen still yet burning in the mind, moved a step back, and coughed as loudly as she could.

"Um, Tenzin? It's Linny, are you free right now?"

She cringed at her choice of words. Linny? Seriously? No one's called me that since I was a kid!, she thought furiously to herself.

A momentary pause passed— although it felt like almost an hour— before a heated "Just a second!" came from inside. There was a frantic fumbling of something, followed by the loud noise of something heavy-ish being knocked carelessly off a table. It took almost all of her willpower for Lin to bite back the urge to giggle.

It was delirious to her, almost, that she had caught Tenzin as he was masturbating. Her mind wandered a bit in the meantime, as waited for him to sort himself out. Perhaps he'd been taking a shower, tired from his long journey home, and came to the decision to jerk off before having to turn into the responsible Airbending heir once again... a momentary act of rebellion before returning to his religious duties.

Just the thought of her fantasy turning out to be true sent a warm flush between her legs. Lin wished that she could see him again, bent back against his bed as he was…

Finally, almost painfully, Tenzin emerged out of the crack in his bedroom door— a clearly newly adorned bathrobe adorned over his bare chest. Unfortunately for the young Airbender (and, truthfully, extremely fortunate for her,) it seemed that all his minutes of frenzied preparation had done nothing to help him hide his obvious bulge.

"Hi Lin." He said, his voice almost, just barely, cracking despite his clear attempts to speak properly.

"Hey." She awkwardly waved back at him. As she did so, an almost mad realisation dawned upon her. As her childhood friend— the best friend she had ever had— shifted from foot to foot in front of her, she realised that this might have be the perfect time where she could act on her feelings without feeling embarrassed. Although she felt slightly guilty about this invasion of his privacy, she knew there was no way that she could end being the more mortified one in this conversation. With this newly found confidence flooding into her veins, Lin pulled herself together and adjusted her back to lean against the doorway, placing herself just inches from his body. He had undoubtedly recently showered, and smelled absolutely fantastic. "What's up, Tenz?"

"Nothing much." He replied, voice still clearly strained. "How about yourself?"

She smiled sweetly at him. "So what were you doing in there?"

His face immediately flushed a bright red, just like he used to do when they were children and her mom had caught him in a lie.

"Meditating."

Spirits, he even lies as exactly as he used to! She giggled to herself internally.

"You're so bad at lying." As he startled at her tone, even Lin herself was surprised by her own bluntness. For all her usual bravado whenever she was with him, they'd never spoken about anything like this before. "Honestly Tenzin, you should remember to shut your door completely next time, what if I had been your mom?— or worse, what if it was Bumi?"

Cheeks still mid-blush, Tenzin cracked an embarrassed, sheepish smile, which in turn made her grin stupidly. "Spirits, Lin, please don't say that."

"Well.. it sure looked like you were thinking about something pretty exciting." His smile dropped, an inscrutable expression taking over its place, and she watched as his Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed slowly, and deeply. "What exactly were you thinking about?"

"Do you really want to know?"

He seemed to be earnestly asking her, and Lin fought against the urge to roll her eyes. Of course she wanted to know what he had been jerking off to, she'd only been fantasising about him since high school!

"I do."

"Um." He faltered, but started once more, "To tell you the truth, Lin.. I was actually fantasising about fucking you on my bedroom desk."

Reflecting back on her life and everything that had led her to this point, Lin found that was curiously surprised by the fact that she was still breathing at all. Just the thought that Tenzin, after all these years of them not meeting, even still pondered of her at all, but that he would stroke himself while thinking about her…

"Really?" She queried, now struggling herself to maintain the steadiness and consistency of her own voice. "... And in this… fantasy... of yours…did I enjoy it?"

"More than enjoyed actually." He whispered, suddenly right in front of her. He was searching her face, eyes still dazed but apparently focused on finding something. God, was this really finally happening?

"Mmhm… and did you want help with that?" What felt like her entire body was screaming at her, at this boldness that seemed to come out of nowhere, but honestly she would be damned if she let anything come between her and what she had been craving for so long.

With one hand gently grasping the side of her face, and the other angling to rest on the curve of her hips, he moved forward once more to whisper to her: "With what exactly?"

Audaciously, she slowly dropped her hand down from its previous resting place on his chest, shifting it to right above his cock, the tips of her fingers practically ghosting over its head.

As he moved forward to meet her lips with his, she responded by pulling the both of them into the heavenly sanctuary of his bedroom, away from any poor, unsuspecting, waterbending witnesses— his half-moaned "Yup, I would definitely like that!" lost amongst their passions.

As she pulled him down to meet her once more, practically shoving him into what was supposed to be his own room, he quickly shut the door behind him— completely this time. Tenzin still couldn't believe it actually worked.