Disclaimer: Naturally, I own none of these characters.

I know the first few chapters seem kind of slow, but I promise I'm going somewhere with this! I wanted to look into their childhoods together, but there will most certainly be grown up Lin and Tenzin, as a kind reviewer inquired earlier today.

Thanks for the support, and enjoy!

"Alright, Lin, let's go," her mother shouted from across the yard. Toph had been so busy with her appointment as chief of police that she hadn't been able to instruct her daughter daily in over a year. Whenever she could spare the time, though, they were training.

As much as Toph hated to admit it, there was little she could teach Lin at this point. She was advanced for her age, freakishly advanced. At twelve Toph had invented a whole new style of bending, and by the same age Lin had surpassed her completely.

It made her more proud than she could say.

"Strong stance, short stuff, I'm not going easy on you," she cautioned, not that she had ever gone lightly on the girl.

"Ready," Lin called.

Toph began by punching a tower right under her daughter's feet. Her brow furrowed. Lin's response felt… wrong. Toph sent three simultaneous boulders crashing around her, and Lin leapt out of the way.

"What the hell was that?" she whispered.

Taking a new approach, she encased Lin in a stone cube and tossed it several yards. Instead of encasing herself with the rock, making a cast around her body, and attacking as Toph taught her, Lin steadied herself inside, rolled once, burst out and struck with the shards in a quick series of strikes.

"Damn it, Lin, what are you doing?" she growled under her breath.

She wasn't attacking. She wasn't rooting herself. She wasn't uncompromising. Seemingly ignoring her rigorous years of work, Lin was acting with new angles, evading when she should charge, moving with weirdly flexible twists and turns.

Motherf-

Toph dropped the stone she was forming and crossed her arms. "So Twinkletoes got to you, huh?" she demanded.

Lin jogged over to her mother. "What do you mean?"

"I mean why in the hell of it did you decide to abandon everything I've worked on with you, so you can join the marble-twirlers?" Lin was infuriatingly silent. "Answer me!"

"You made your own style, and I made mine."

"You're not earthbending!" she shouted.

"Well you couldn't beat me!" Lin threw back.

Toph faced her daughter for a moment, considering briefly weather or not she should create a fault beneath her and bury her a few feet. Had Lin been anyone else, she would have regretted those words.

"No, I couldn't," Toph admitted. "I just made you too awesome. Congratulations, kiddo, you're on par with the best."

"Really?" she asked breathlessly.

"Baby girl, I'm so proud of you." Toph opened her arms and smiled as the light of her life rushed into them. "I love you, Lin."

"I love you, too, Mom."

That night, Toph invited Aang and his family over for dinner. Later, she and her old friends sat in the large, elegant drawing room while the children played outside.

"What are they up to?" Katara worried. She had always been an anxious mother. Loving, but anxious.

"Running around like the little lemurs they are," answered Toph with a laugh. "Aang, it's driving me a little crazy, but I really want to thank you."

"Thank me?"

"Yeah, for working with Lin. I hate to admit it, but you really helped her create a powerful technique. I've never seen anything like it."

"Toph, I honestly don't know what you're talking about."

She was lost. "You've been teaching her airbending."

"You have?" asked his wife.

"Not unless I've been sleep-teaching," he answered slowly.

"Wait, hold on," Toph sat straighter in her chair. "I worked with Lin today, and she's definitely using airbending moves. It was weird at first because I couldn't 'see' a lot of it, and, frankly, it doesn't make a bit of sense. You shouldn't be able to mix earth and air, but I'll be damned if she didn't."

Aang laughed. "I really want to see that, but I didn't have anything to do with it."

"Wait," thought Katara aloud, "if she's not learning from you, who's she…?"

They were suddenly silent.

"Well, this is interesting," supplied Toph after a moment.

"Oh, stop it." Katara waved a dismissive hand. "You and Zuko both taught Aang; it's because you're passing along knowledge to a friend."

"True, and if memory serves you also had something to do with that training, and look where that landed you, Mama Fishie. Besides," Toph grinned at the two, "we all knew there was lingering tension between Firecracker and the Avatar."

Aang laughed, but Katara added, "My point is that there's nothing wrong with instructing a friend, and we all know how close those two are. They're inseparable, like Kya and Bumi."

"True enough," agreed her husband. On cue, a loud crash resounded from the kitchen. "Well… not exactly like Ky and Boom," he admitted.

A valet entered, holding each child by an arm. "Madam, it seems the Avatar's children have seen fit to, well…"

"We wanted to bake a cake," explained Bumi, as if this man were an idiot.

"But a lot of the stuff was on a top shelf-" chimed his sister.

"So I got on Kya's back to climb up."

"Logically," Toph chuckled.

"If you don't mind, Shien, please take them out front. We'll be leaving shortly, and these two can wait in the carriage." Their mother's stern voice left no room for argument.

Shien nodded and escorted the flour-and-egg-coated children outside. Toph laughed as soon as the door shut, and Katara sighed, "It could always be worse than airbending, Toph."

Katara walked over, and Toph stood to hug her goodnight. "I'll see you soon," she promised.

"Why don't I go look for the youngest while you keep an eye on the cakebenders?" suggested Aang. Katara nodded and followed her oldest children.

"They're probably out back," mused Toph as she led her friend to the courtyard.

"You know, I never did understand why you kept such an… extravagant home in the city. I thought you hated that lifestyle."

"I hate the restriction. Now I'm a grown-up with ridiculous amounts of money. Why would I want a tiny house that I have to clean myself?"

Aang laughed. "Fair enough. You seem to be handling the new job very well," he complimented, referring to her promotion. Realistically, there hadn't been much of a change. Toph Bei Fong founded and led the police force years ago, but as the institution grew, a formal recognition of management became necessary.

"Then I'm a good actor."

"Is something wrong?"

"No, it's fine. There are just a lot of late nights. It's really sad how much crime we have in this city, and the bigger groups always seem to be three steps ahead of me. I've hardly slept in three days, with that Yakone trial coming up."

Aang sighed, showing his age. "That'll be a party."

"I hope so; your kids are making a cake for it. How about I bring some hats?"

"Perfect," he chuckled as they reached the back door. She slid it open, and held out a hand to stop Aang. It took him only a second longer to see Lin and Tenzin, both with his eyes and feet. He knew he shouldn't have, but he increased the sound waves coming from a patch of grass a hundred yards away.

Toph smirked at the all-powerful Avatar's eavesdropping and the way her daughter's head rested on this boy's shoulder.

"That one there," she heard Tenzin explain, "is the Mountain."

"I don't see it," Lin whispered.

"Here," he extended his finger. "See the three bright ones all together?"

"Mhm."

"Now follow that bottom one down in a straight line."

"Ok."

"Now see that butterbee? He's in the way of the corner of what you're looking for."

"Wait, the six in a line?"

"That's it."

"I see it! And then that one makes the top! What else is there?"

"Well," he scanned the sky for a moment. "Do you see that big, bright one in the east?"

Lin smacked his chest. "That's the moon, you jerk." He laughed and she settled her head back into place.

Toph loudly opened and closed the door, as if they had just arrived. "Tenzin, your parents are leaving," she called before turning to Aang. "You were right, Twinkletoes. They're not exactly like Kya and Bumi, are they?"

Thoughts? Comments? Concerns? Reviews are like cupcakes in my life.