Through the black veil clouding her thoughts, a yellow light shone through her eyelids.

What does this mean? Have I finally frozen to death?

Her thoughts became more panicked

Am I burning?

It certainly felt like it, her skin felt like it was burning off, to finally reveal pink flesh and red blood.

Her eyes were still clenched shut, she didn't want to open them, imagining the sight would torture her more than the burning pain ever could.

Why was she tortured even in death? Lin didn't know, though she believed it certainly was for something she did in life.

I deserve this! Now everyone will think they mistreated me and a funeral is such a chore, even if it's just for appearance, I doubt someone will cry over my passing.

It must be a real nuisance to drag a dead body around the ice, and they also need to find me first, why didn't I think about that, now I made them even more work and I

thought I would be one less sick to heal and one less mouth to feed.

She decided she should open her eyelids, she deserved whatever agony awaitet her, and waiting could very well make it worse.

Her eyes opened slowly the yellow light now invading her eyesight unhindered, blurring her vision.

"Lin? Haha Lin!" a happy voice proclaimed

was it mocking her? Laughing at her misery? Oh, it must be extremely enjoyable to watch someone getting tortured in their afterlife.

Something dark blocked the light now from entering her eyes, she could slowly start to see.

Tenzin expected quite a few things that could happen, but no scenario prepared him for reality.

As soon as Lin could recognize him her mouth was gaping in shock, but before Tenzin could say anything, explain to her that he safed her, loved her and always will love her,

she regained control over her right arm and punched him in the nose, it broke upon contact with the reddened pair of knuckles.

Tenzin shortly cried out in pain.

"Why do you do this! Why are you tormenting me even further!" Lin screamed with all the force she could bring up, though her lungs, burning, couldn't hold that much air.

"It's me Lin, Tenzin, don't you recognize me?"

"How could I ever forget that stupid face of yours!"

"Lin, listen, what you wrote in th.." An angry Lin interrupted

"No, you listen! I allow myself to be weak one time, only once and you just render it void forcing me to live in this hell!" She was taking shallow breaths every other word.

Tenzin let the words sink in for a moment, when he recovered he decided to do something extremely stupid. He covered her lips with his.

Lin was completely frozen, not moving a single muscle, after he broke the kiss she couldn't say a word she just stared wide eyed

"I love you Lin, I always loved you! I need you!"

At the sound of the words Lin first began to cry, then to sob and finally wimper

"I love you Lin" Tenzin said again and tried to wrap his arms around her, but Lin pushed him away forcefully as he tried to get closer.

Does he really think I'm that stupid?

Lin became angry again "You only say that because you think I would try again if you didn't. Now go out! Go to your wife! I don't want so see you again!"

"Lin I wont't leave, I love you, please forgive me!"

"Stop lying to me!"

"I'm not lying Lin" He sounded a little sad, was he telling the truth?

No it can't be, he just wants to be nice, so I won't bother him with a funeral.

"Stop being polite Tenzin. ...will you go to your family and leave me alone if I swear not to kill myself?" Lin asked defeated

"I won't leave you Lin... not again"

"please!" Lin started to cry again.

Tenzin took her into his strong arms, this time without being shoved away.

She cried into his shoulder until sleep took her.

Lin was fast asleep and Tenzin decided he would bring her belongings, since, as Katara told him, she would need to stay in bed for at least three more days.

He slipped out of her arms, careful not to wake her, and headed to her room. She hadn't prepared anything there, the backpack with all her belongings minus the police uniform,

she was now unable to wear, lay haphazardly on the floor in the corner of the room.

It was one of seven guestrooms Sokka built in the house shortly after his hunting lodge was finished, the building housed two stories with five rooms each, the actual hunting lodge was connected to the main house by the hallway on the ground floor.

Tenzin searched through her bag, she was not going to use everything while lying in bed, Lin apparently only possessed police uniforms he placed two wintercoats in her closet as well as a pair of heavy and thick trousers, she didn't wear any winterclothes when she went outside earlier this week, either because she didn't bother or because she wanted to freeze.

As he relived the memory of finding her on the ice of the southpole in his mind, he touched a hard piece of paper or carton, it was hastily stuffed inside the main pocket of the bag.

He retrieved the scrunched up piece, discovering it was a photograph, he turned it over and smoothed out the picture.

He could clearly see his and Lin's engagement, remembering the occasion like it was yesterday, on the picture he appeared to be the happiest man alive, that's because he was.

Never had Tenzin be any happier in his life, not at the moment of his wedding to Pema, where he was clearly out of his mind, concerned for Lin and uncomfortable with the publicity of the occasion, not at the birth of Jinora, where he prayed to all the spirits, that she would be healthy and Pema would not suffer harm from the birthing, nothing came near that moment when he made a pact with the person he loved to stay together until they died.

He didn't, he didn't act out the promise he made, the undying spirit of the Avatar stood witness and he didn't do it.

Aang encouraged Tenzin to marry her, he helped with the betrothal necklace, a beautiful peace made out of malachite adorned with the angular symbol of earth made out of gold and in its center the three swirls of air in silver, the whole thing was covered in a turmaline, clear as glass with a hint of green, Avatar Aang bent around to protect the precious core his son carved.

Tenzin was told by his father, that he should marry whomever he loves, if Katara didn't get any airbender children, Aang still would have never bedded another woman,

"The world naturally strives for balance, humankind did not start with bending, it was learned from the original benders and the reappearance of the skybison gave hope to the world, that there might be airbenders again", his father told him all those years ago.

If he would have just listened to his father.

Tenzin realized that Aang probably had several discussions with the White Lotus, they came very often to Air-Temple Island after Tenzin was twenty, no one of the old members, that were good friends of Aang and his family, were alive for at least eight years at that point, the last one was master Piandao, he reached the ripe old age of 82 before dying in his sleep.

The realization dawned upon him, that the right thing wouldn't have been to let Lin go, if Avatar Aang would have been alive, he would have objected, he did object, Tenzins father knew what was the right thing and never let the white lotus say anything against it, but when he died his objection died with him.

Tenzin forced himself awake, he was staring at the picture in his hands lost in thought for at least ten minutes.

Lin looked beautiful, this Lin he was proposing to was full of live, joking and laughing, it was a stark contrast to the Lin he worked with the last fifteen years, a cold calculating person not trusting anyone and serious in every matter, or the Lin who lay in a bed a few rooms up the hallway, broken and angry like a hurt animal. The most different person to all of them was the Lin that wrote that letter to him, a person believing everything was her fault, acknowledging her mistakes, but also weeping over what they had lost.

He wished for the person he was engaged with to come back, or that at least the serious Lin didn't come back. They never talked for fifteen years, he had never heard anything that was not business related from her, he didn't want to know every move of the triads, he was interested in her, what Lin did the day, if she was well or if she found another one, anything to alleviate the silence between them.

It hurt him, he should have moved on, he was married after all, but the thought of not knowing anything about the person he spent his entire life with wasn't very pleasurable at all.

He knew every nook and crannie of her, every tiny quirk of her personality, she was an open book to him as he was to her. Suddenly they knew nothing of the other, Lin even went so far as to proclaim, in her letter,

that she didn't know if Tenzin had ever loved her, this notion made him feel guilty.

I should have told Lin, that I wasn't leaving her because I didn't love her!

Tenzin took the bag, loaded with spare clothes in his right, and the picture in his left and went off to the room next to the washing chamber and the kitchen where Lin recovered.

She was still sleeping, so he leaned the bag beside her bed, placed the picture on her nightstand, took a short look at her angel like appearance and headed off to find Katara.

His Nose was still broken and needed mending, he should have gone to his mother immediately, but comforting Lin was a more important task.

The bleeding had stopped even before Lin was asleep, that should have been about an hour ago, but it was still throbbing and it hurt, a small gust of wind would be enough to bring him intense pain.

Tenzin found Katara in the kitchen stirring in a large pot, a pleasant smell filling the air. carrots? maybe some parsnip? there was some aroma Tenzin couldn't quite assign, but it smelled delicious.

"That's not five-flavour soup is it?"

"It's arctic-hen soup, Grangran used to make it back at home"

"ewww!" He pinched his nose in an exaggerated manner

"I don't eat that mom"

"It's not for you dear, it's for the guest that has been living here for a week. Reminds me. How is Lin, have you checked on her?" His mother asked still turned towards the soup, stirring.

"That is actually the reason I had come here"

"Do you want to go back to your family? I won't mind, Lin has always been like a second daughter to me. I'll manage. I'm actually surprised you are still here while Pema took the children back to Airtemple Island"

"No, I don't want to go. Lin woke up!"

"She did?" Katara's look of surprise deepened after she turned around, now clearly able to see Tenzins mangled face.

"Well... she's asleep again. Could you please help me with this?" he asked pointing at his nose

"No problem" she stated unenthusiastically, Katara was used to patch others up, it could never peak her interest as much as the fighting had, but she got a lot of practice especially with Sokka and Bumi.

Katara bent a sphere of boiling water out of a cauldron beside the soup and mixed it with cold water from a water tank situated in her kitchen.

Republic city already had an aqueduct system, the waterbenders

would get the water from surrounding rivers, clean it with the help of earthbenders and collect it in a giant reservoir above the city, it would then flow down to the city, giving clean water to every household.

Republic City's water system was invented by Tenzin's father Avatar Aang, he once came back from a visit to Omashu telling Tenzin to think outside of his box, then he snorted while laughing, back then he could just make out that his father was impersonating someone, as it turned out Aang just wanted to recreate the Omashu postal system with water. Though he claimed that all the fun would be gone, he was eventually convinced to use tubing.

Katara didn't have those luxuries, this was obviously no problem to her as a waterbender, but things like electricity couldn't be used in her home.

The water swirled around his nose, it compressed around it.

Then the swirl was moved a bit farther to the left.

Crack!

"Aaaaah! Mom it hurts!"

"Do you want a straight or a crooked nose? I know what I'm doing my dear, I've fixed Bumi's nose at least five times." The mother of three didn't budge at Tenzin's outcry of pain.

After everything was where it should be, the water started to glow in a light blue.

When the deed was done Tenzin touched his nose trying to feel if everything was alright.

Katara let the water turn to ice with a mirror surface and turned it so Tenzin could see himself.

"Is everything to your liking?"

"Thank you mother, it was a pleasure." Katara grinned at this.

"no problem TenTen"

Tenzin frowned at his old nickname but would not object.

A short silence ensued until Tenzin finally spoke up.

"I brought Lin's stuff to her, could you please tell me when the soup is ready?"

"it should be in about an hour"

"I'm going then mother"

The old master enveloped her son in a hug, she seemed almost grateful.

Tenzin was a bit confused why his mother hugged him, he was just going into the next room.

He headed for the room Lin was situated in, it was actually a large washroom Katara equipped with two washtubs three beds and several water containers hanging off the walls.

Several oil lamps illuminated the room with their yellow light, the lamps were imported from the Firenation, no one was better at the art of making glass, lenses and mirrors and they knew how to design it, so the lamps

would not need much oil.

Tenzin peered across the room, past a washtub to a small storage container and finally to Lin's bed, she was sleeping deeply, her, once ebony, now greyed hair flowed freely down her shoulders and breast. She wore one of her black under tunics, as well as everything else she usually wore, this was part of her uniform, as was everything Tenzin saw her in for more than a decade.

The last time he could remember seeing her in "normal" clothes was at Sokka's funeral

It didn't feel right, that he hadn't even seen her as a private person, his best friend with whom he shared thirty-six of his now fifty-one year long life.

Her skin, usually white as ivory had a red tinge to it, still irritated from the cold, Katara therefore healed her every time she washed the unconscious woman, but with no obvious point of injury to travel, the chi wasn't able to mend her skin effectively.

The first two days Tenzin felt nothing but guilt.

It was I who drove her to this, like I myself pushing her off the cliff.

Tenzin could never imagine himself doing any harm to Lin, when he left her, he didn't realize how much it hurt Lin, but he now came to the conclusion, that by doing this, he tore everything Lin had out of her life, her family, her friends, himself, all joy, all lightheartedness, what remained was little more than a dead husk, the chief of republic city.

After the first days passed a feeling of wanting to be with her resurfaced, he brushed her hair, sang soothing words in her ear, he even sometimes cuddled to her when Katara was asleep.

Though he desired a comatose woman, it was good to be with her again, to see her breathe, feel her skin and smell her hair, he didn't knew how he missed her very being until now.

Tenzin grabbed the bag leaning on her bed and took the first of many books out of it, Lin always read, when she wasn't working, she did this back in their blissful time together and apparently now too.

Before Tenzin went to sit on the chair beside Lin he lowered his head to her ear and calmly spoke words of love to her, he then lightly kissed the temple of the sleeping woman, smiling at her he sat down and began to read.