A/N: Sorry for not updating! I was in bad pain the last few days, so I didn't feel like writing. Anyways, this drabble is Tenzin/Lin, because I wanted to challenge myself by writing a pairing I don't like. Also my first time writing Tenzin and Lin, so, uh, yeah. Any feedback is appreciated and welcomed.


5. Children

"I don't care about my career, Lin, I want a family! Kids, a wife, a home."

Lin blinked at his outburst. Tenzin was standing across from her, a rare look of anger and hurt on his face. Oh. So he was mad at her about that, huh? That explained his icy demeanor of late, and his annoying every other minute sighs. So this was what Avatar Aang's great and gifted son wanted, hmm? He wanted her to become a baby machine, and make him a bunch of new Airbenders, huh? Well, Lin would make sure to smash those dreams of his. She had no intentions of doing any such thing, ever. Just the thought of carrying a kid inside of her, like a parasite or infection, slowly growing bigger and bigger, made her shiver. It wasn't that she hated kids, she just didn't want them, nor did she want to hang around them. She had had enough of kids in her lifetime, Suyin being the biggest, most annoying kid of them all. If she wanted a kid, she could go and hang around Suyin and she would rather drown than do that.

With a sigh, she made her way to the door, past him. She opened the door, but before she left, she said:

"Tenzin, I don't want kids. I don't want to be a wife. I love my job, and I love you, I do, but I don't want any of that other stuff. Can't we just love each other without all of that? I told you before we got together that I didn't want kids, you said you understood. What changed, Tenzin?" she stopped, and gouged his expression.

Tenzins' face crumbled some and he shifted his gaze, his stance also changed, she noticed, his shoulders slumped forwards, and he crossed his arms defensively across his chest, as for protection. Protection against me, she realized. Okay, she wouldn't lie, that hurt. A bit.

"Tenzin?" she said again, a bit louder.

He sighed, and uncrossed his arms, rubbed one hand down his face and mumbled, "I need to have children, Lin. There need to be other Airbenders. I'm sorry, but, if you don't want kids, we're going to have to... break up."

Lin's eyebrows shot up. Had she just heard him correctly?

"What?" she said, her voice sounded dazed to her own ears. Damn. She hated sounding like that, hated sounding weak in front of him.

He sighed again, even louder, and a thousand more times annoying. "I said, we should break up. We're done, Lin, I'm sorry. I love you, but I have a duty to the world."

Unable to control herself, she asked, "Is there another woman, Tenzin?"

Tenzin's eyes widened and he quickly looked away from her, and Lin knew. The bastard had fallen in love with another woman. But, who?

"Who is it, Tenzin?" she asked through gritted teeth.

"... Pema." he muttered weakly.

What Lin did next was entirely justifiable, and if you asked her, she should have been allowed to arrest Pema.