The next day, after ditching the metalbending academy and training with Kya and Izumi, Lin went to Air Temple Island to visit with Tenzin who, unlike her, didn't have to leave home to go to school.
"You're sad," Lin said immediately upon seeing him sitting alone in a gazebo, meditating.
"How can you tell?"
"I know you, Tenzin. What's wrong?" Lin asked sitting beside him, crossing her legs in a lotus position as well.
"I don't like the idea of you pro-bending again this year," Tenzin said.
"And why not? It's good practice for self defense."
"But it is dangerous. Why do you even need self defense? It's not like we're at war with anybody or anything,"
"Excuse me? Are you forgetting about the triads in the city constantly competing for control of various pockets of the city? Sorry not everyone can live on his or her own perfect little island with a couple dozen other people who all share the exact same thoughts, opinions and values! The city is a dangerous place. If it were so safe that I don't to practice self defense, my Mom would be out of a job!"
"Sorry Lin, I just- feel like pro-bending is an extra… unnecessary danger I don't want you to face."
Lin laughed. "It's not dangerous! How many times to I need to keep saying this?"
"But you're under age and all of your opponents are bigger than you and older by AT LEAST two years-"
"Bumi is older and bigger than me,"
"But he's a non-bender—"
"You're older than me by one year and bigger than me and I still beat your ass every time we spar. I don't see the difference,"
"But— that's different. We're training."
"It's not different. Fighting is fighting."
"But I don't go all out on you!"
"OH REALLY?" Lin replied standing up looking down at her boyfriend menacingly.
"Lin, please don't be angry! I just don't want to see you to get hurt!"
"I WON'T get hurt. It's JUST pro-bending." Lin said throwing her arms in the air in exasperation. "I probably have a greater chance of getting killed by my own mother during weekend sparring than in a pro-bending match."
"Lin, please!" Tenzin begged. "Reconsider participating, please."
"I don't get it, Tenzin! You're okay with me being a cop when I'm older but you're not okay with me pro-bending?"
"Well, no, I'm not okay with that either, but I figured by that point, I won't be able to stop you, anyways," Tenzin said.
"By that point?" Lin asked lifting her arms in exasperation, bringing with each hand an earthen pillar. "Oh and you thought you could had any power to stop me now?" Lin asked chucking one pillar in his direction as he slid to the side to avoid it. "You thought you could control me?!" She asked throwing the other.
"We'll influence but—"
"Tenzin, HOW DARE YOU! Am I your girlfriend or you servant, Tenzin?"
"Girlfriend, but I thought that meant we got to practice compromising on certain things…" Tenzin replied shielding his face from a flurry of rocks and pebbles.
"I'm your girlfriend! Not some air acolyte or servant you can command!" Lin yelled encasing both of his wrists in rock where he stood so she could approach him without him running. "So what is 'going all out' for you, TENZIN!" she demanded spitting on the ground at his feet.
Tenzin did a wide arching ax kick and blasted her back several meters . She rolled a few times before finding her feet again and gripping into the ground with her bare fingers curled like claws in the stone. Tenzin yanked his hands free of the rock bonds and created an air funnel rising up thirty feet in the air.
"I don't want to fight you Lin! I love you!" he yelled from atop his mastery-level air funnel.
Lin looked up with squinting eyes and bared teeth then bent the ground beneath her into a massive pillar and lifted herself up to be equal with him in the air. "THEN STOP TELLING ME WHAT TO DO!" She yelled at him. "I can take care of myself BY MYSELF! I DON'T NEED YOU!" Lin yelled jumping off the pillar, down thirty feet, decimating the ground beneath her into an earth wave, running towards the docks and boarding the ferry. Tenzin sighed and came back down slowly. He'd have to ask his dad, the avatar and only earthbender permanently living on the island to put the pillar back down and restore the terrain, but that would have to wait since Dad was working in the city for the day.
Katara came running out with healing water ready on her hands.
"I heard you and Lin bending. What's broken?" Katara asked expecting to have to heal something.
"Nothing but my heart," Tenzin replied sadly turning away from her as he landed softly on the ground again..
"Sorry, come again?" Katara asked.
"I think Lin just broke up with me," Tenzin sighed sitting down miserably.
"Oh honey!" Katara dropped the water into two puddles and fell by her son. "I'm sure she didn't mean what she said."
"No, I'm pretty sure she meant it. Lin never lies to me, and she's a terrible actress," Tenzin replied hugging his knees.
Lin found Kya and Izumi chatting over a cup of tea in Ding's Dumpling Shop in the Sandy Plains Borough.
"Pork chive for table eleven, please," Lin said to a passing waiter as she headed for their table.
"You look rather miserable for a twelve-year-old child," Kya said pivoting in her chair.
"Another cup of tea for the little one, please," Izumi said waving another waiter down, pulling up an extra chair for Little Linny.
"I think I broke up with Tenzin," Lin informed the two teens as she climbed into the chair, her feet not quite reaching the ground as Kya and Izumi each took a side and pulled her towards the table.
"Is jasmine okay?" the waiter asked placing a fresh pot and another cup on their table.
"Yes, Thank you," Izumi said wrapping her hands around the bowl of the pot, checking the temperature and making the proper adjustments before pouring for Lin.
"What happened, Linny?" Kya asked placing a hand on the little girl's.
"Tenzin doesn't want me to do pro-bending because he it's too dangerous. He claims I don't need to practice self defense. He thinks that just because we're not in the middle of a world war means that there is no danger in the world. He tells me that we don't need to know how to fight or grow up as quickly as our parents. How can he say that? If he just opened his eyes and read the newspaper, he would see that this era of peace is all an illusion!"
"I disagree. Compared to the our parents' child hood, ours is easy, and peaceful, relatively speaking," Kya responded.
"And Lin, Tenzin is right about some things. We don't have to grow up as quickly as our own parents. We get to waste time relax and take breaks from our already accelerated development," Izumi added to Lin.
"But he's also wrong about some things, like pro-bending being dangerous," Kya added.
"And that is the problem! EVER SINCE I AGREED TO BE HIS GIRLFRIEND, HE'S BEEN TRYING TO CONTROL ME! I DON'T GET IT! I'm not even an air acolyte let alone a servant he can command!"
"He's self-centered, paranoid git sometimes, if you ask me," Kya muttered leaning on her elbow.
"Boys are infuriating!" Lin yelled.
"Tell me about it, Linny!" Kya sighed. "You know, should try on girls sometime."
Lin grimaced at the thought. "Ew! Gross!"
"Oh! Don't be a homophobe-"
"I'm not— WHATEVER! You do you Kya!"
"Oh I intend to, don't worry," Kya said with a smirk.
"You're not helping her," Izumi said frowning at Izumi.
"Pork chive for table eleven?" a waiter said placing a plate with a dozen fresh dumplings down in front of Lin.
"Thank you," Izumi said politely sliding the plate closer to Lin so she wouldn't need to reach.
"I'm only giving her suggestions. She doesn't have to heed them. No need to get your knickers in a twist, Princess Zumi! See Lin, if my brother doesn't work out, you could always try me,"
"Can I enjoy my dumplings in peace now?" Lin asked loudly.
"No," Kya said giggling.
"Will you quit it?!" Izumi said swatting at Kya across the table. "Linny, if you would like some real advice, we can get your dumplings to go and head somewhere private," Izumi said with a protective hand on Lin's shoulder.
"Aww don't leave!" Kya begged.
"Then quit flirting with Little Linny!" Izumi ordered.
"I'm not little! I'm twelve years old now!" Lin declared.
"You'll always be little to us. Stop fighting." Izumi replied running her fingers through Lin's hair while she batted the princess's hand away with her right hand while stuffing a dumpling into her face with her chopsticks in her left.
That evening, Toph Beifong returned home to find her older daughter collapsed face down on her bed in the master bedroom.
"I've been waiting," Lin grumbled in a muffled voice through the blankets, otherwise not moving.
"Aunt Katara told me. How are you feeling Kiddo?" Toph asked sitting on the bed, placing a hand on her daughter's back, stroking it in comforting circles.
"Mom, can I have five thousand yuans?" Lin asked shocking the Police Chief.
"For Tenzin?"
"No, because of Kya and Izumi."
"Why?" Toph asked a little suspiciously. "Did you lose a bet?"
"No. I just can't stand to spend a second longer than necessary with that sad excuse for a pro-bending team!"
"That's... Honey, first of all, I'm sponsoring your team, and second of all I don't think five thousand yuan will be enough to pay off the Crown Princess of the Fire Nation, Linny,"
"I'm not paying them off. I'm going join my frienemies from theatre class at Ba Sing Se Shopping Center for a shopping spree after team training,"
At that Toph burst out laughing as Lin groped around the bed for a pillow and used it to sandwhich her tired head between it and the blankets on her mother's bed miserably. "Oh honey! But you hate shopping!"
"I know I do!— Mom please— just try to understand. I'm just desperate for other company!"
"Okay my little cranky flying boar. But take the credit card. Since Kya is a hippie, she may try to steal any cash I give you. And Linny, try to have fun tomorrow. Don't worry about the max. You've been working hard lately. You deserve this... 'shopping spree'." Toph said removing the pillow from her daughter's head and running her fingers through her daughter's hair until the twelve year old fell asleep.
Ugh. I am really enjoying writing Kya as the awkward friend you never really wanted but still love and Izumi as her polite and loving compliment. LMK what you think/want to see or else I'm going to just keep writing blindly.