51 Broken

As she always did when she was home, Toph opened the door before Tenzin could knock. "Hi Gramps." she greeted with a smile.

"Hello Toph. How are you?" he asked as he walked in the door.

She punched him in the arm "Good as ever." she closed the door "Lin's upstairs."

"Thank you." he answered and he kissed her on the forehead like he had taken to doing when he was a teenager. At first it was to annoy her, but then it turned into a loving habit. She shoved him in the back, which was her usual response. They both smiled and Tenzin headed up the stairs.

"I thought you said Ten was here!" Sokka called from the living room.

"I did." Toph said as she reentered the room "And you don't have to yell, I'm not deaf."

"Oh, so he couldn't take the time to say hello to his old uncle? First my daughter abandoned me in that big empty house, now my nephew casts me to the side."

"Meathead please. Stop with the dramatic overture. You know better than anyone that the White Lotus needed Philo and Kimi in the North Pole and you never spent much time in that house even when they were here." she exhaled sadly "As for Gramps, well, he's here on a mission."

"What did he tell you?"

"It's not what he said so much as his heart. I think he's finally going to end it."

"Ugh. I hate to say it, but it's about time one of them came to their senses." Sokka said.

"You never liked them being together anyway." Toph snipped.

"That's true, but as long as they were happy, I accepted it. We both know they haven't been happy for a long time."

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

When Tenzin found Lin in her den she was admiring a shiny new pair of metal boots. She looked up and saw him "Ten, look. Sokka made them for me." she held the bottom of the boost to him "They have sections so they retract easier." she made the bottoms of the boots pull back "Isn't that great?"

Tenzin gave a weak smile "Ever the daddy's girl."

"Oh," she said "That reminds me. Moo-Chee will be here soon, in a day or two. He wanted to know if he could take us out for dinner."

Tenzin shifted "You two hardly get to see each other. I think I should let you have your time."

"Okay. Hey, have you seen the paper today?"

"No, I haven't."

"Well apparently that Sato guy, you know, the one who was Teo's assistant for a little while, well he was a shoeshine boy before Teo took him on and now this invention of his, the Satomobile, is making a mint."

"That's good." he said quietly "Lin, I need to talk to you."

She went on "You know, Teo gave him the money he needed to get started. Talk about a smart investment." she turned to put her boots on the shelf. "Sokka's kicking himself for not thinking about it first. He said it wa-"

"Lin," he said a bit more firmly. "I need to talk to you."

She smiled "Oh. I've been rambling, haven't I?"

Tenzin gave another weak smile "Just a little."

"So, what do you want to talk about?"

"Lin, I've been thinking a lot lately, about us and-"

She rolled her eyes "Tenzin, not this again. I swear, do we really have to talk about this every couple of weeks?"

"No Lin, it's not that. I have accepted that you don't want to be married or have children."

"Oh. Well good."

"I've also accepted that it's not in our best interest to remain in this relationship."

"What?"

"We're making each other miserable, we have been for a long time. We're not doing each other any favors by staying together."

The metal bender stood stunned "Wha- You-" then a thought came crashing in on her "No, this isn't about us, it's about that girl."

"Girl?" Tenzin said. Pema hadn't entered his mind in a few days.

"Yes. That page at City Hall. I see the way she looks at you."

Tenzin frowned a little "She has nothing to do with this. This is about the two of us."

"So you say…Okay, if it's not her then it's this marriage thing. Why is it so important to you? Look at Mom and Sokka, they never got married and they're perfectly happy."

"Why are you determined to compare us to other people? Our relationship is not theirs."

"And it's not your parents' either." she snapped folding her arms across her chest defiantly.

"I never said it was." he snapped back.

"You may as well have. That's all you want is that perfect little family that your parents had."

"Why do you act like having a family is a plague? You had just as much of a stable home life as I did."

"Stable? I had my mother, her secret boyfriend, a crazy nanny and a father who didn't want me. How is that stable?"

"You had people who loved you, that's how. No, Moo-Chee wasn't there when you were a child, but Sokka always was. He still is. How can you be this bitter about family?"

"I just don't want that!"

"Well I do! Can't you see, this is something that we are never going to agree on?!"

"Tenzin you-" she threw her hands up "Just get out."

"Lin, I don't want it to be like this."

She scowled at him "What did you expect this to be like? Did you expect me to be happy about this?"

"Lin-"

"I said get out!" she pointed to the door.

He tried again "Lin-"

Before he could get another word out she punched him in the nose "I said get the fuck out! You want it over, it's over."

He held his hand to his bleeding nose "Goodbye Lin."

She inhaled with a shudder "Get out."

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

Sokka watched unnoticed as his nephew came down the stairs with wet eyes and a bloody handkerchief on his nose. Once Tenzin was out the door he went up to Lin.

"I told you to get the fuck out." she yelled through the tears when she heard the steps coming down the hall "I'll do more than punch you this time."

"It's me Linny" he said as he entered the den.

"Sokka?" she said turning around to see her surrogate father standing near the door with his arms open "He's gone Sokka."

"I know Linny." he said as he closed his arms around her.

"Why isn't the fact that I love him enough?" she cried into his shoulder.

"Sometimes people want different things." the old warrior said rubbing his hand up and down her back.

She looked at him with furrowed brows "You…agree with him, don't you?"

"Lin, I never wanted you hurt, but maybe this is for the best."

She stepped back "You too? You think we shouldn't be together."

Sokka exhaled with a pained look on his face "Babygirl, you two have not really been happy together for years. What was either of you gaining?"

She shook her head "We had each other, that should have been enough."

"But it wasn't Lin."

Lin close her eyes and squeezed them tight "Just leave me alone Sokka."

Sokka put his hand on her shoulder and said "I'm sorry Linny." then he turned around and left.

I didn't really want to do it, but it was inevitable. Hopefully it doesn't suck too much, I just wrote whatever pops in my head while I was writing…wait, that's what I always do. Oh well.