I just started work on the last chapter, so I can now say there will be ten total. I may also be able to get two posted a week for you all, depending on how quickly I can get everything edited through the "yay it's done!" stage to the "okay, now it can actually be read" stage.

Thank you to everyone who has been reading, I appreciate each and every one of you very much. And my reviewers - I love you all!

Enjoy!

Warrior Raging

Chapter 4

They woke early the next morning, rising with the sun as it came over the horizon. Tenzin packed away their small camp, Lin gathering their things into bags again and checking the map one last time before he flew them to the base of the mountains to find a place to bathe.

The stream was very cold, running from the mountain they had just left, but Lin eagerly pulled her short hair away from her face with two long-toothed wooden combs and began splashing it over her face. Tenzin found a space beside her, watching for a moment as she extended her hands down under the rippling surface again. The sunlight caught on the lacquered edge of the combs, comforting and reminding him of younger years spending mornings together. More than that, they reminded him of home – of the home he'd had with her. Such a small thing, those pieces of wood nestled in her hair, and he reached for water to rinse over his face in an effort to push the nostalgia away.

"It would be nice find somewhere to have a real bath," she muttered, unaware of his eyes on her and moving away again. "No way am I getting my entire body in here, I'd freeze."

"We can look for an inn," Tenzin suggested, actually thinking along the same line she was. Summer may have been shortly passed, but autumn was approaching so quickly the previous season may as well not have happened.

Lin hummed her agreement, scrubbing her face with a bar of soap and passing it over to him. He took it gratefully, trying not to watch any longer as she removed her armor and undershirt down to her bindings to expose her arms and shoulders to wash them as well. She finished quickly, already reaching for the one small towel they had brought to dry herself with and put her clothes back on.

"Perhaps," she said. He wasn't sure what she was replying to at first, but she continued after a moment. "As long as we can find an inn with no connection to the city. We really don't want anyone to know we didn't go to the South Pole. I'd rather keep living like this for the next week and stink to the Spirit World than risk our safety for a warm bath."

They set off on foot not long after their foray into the stream. It was turning into a rather nice morning, if they ignored the cold, and Lin pulled her jacket tight around her shoulders over her armor as they found a little-worn path through the thin trees at the base of the mountains. She looked up at the sun every so often to be sure they were still headed in the right direction, and they took a rather leisurely pace for an hour or so, not wanting to push unless they had to.

It was nearing ten o'clock, according to the changing shadows around them, and Lin shifted her bag higher on her shoulders.

"Hey!"

The unfamiliar voice and sudden pattering of several feet behind them brought Lin and Tenzin to a halt, and they looked over their shoulders to see three teenage boys and a girl standing in a tense line across the path. Lin glanced at her friend to see he was as bemused as she was, but Tenzin, for his part, didn't seem perturbed at having been stopped.

"Yes?" he asked kindly, giving them his full attention.

"You're going the wrong way," one of the boys said, standing to the left of the oldest who was clearly the leader. "You've come into our territory."

"The map we have doesn't show any land boundaries here," Lin said plainly, "and it is a very good map. So if you'd please, we need to go now." She turned again to leave, but a rock whizzing by her head stopped her in her tracks. She spun around crossly. "What exactly are you playing at?"

"Give us all your stuff!" the first boy said.

"Especially your money," the girl added, slipping into a sloppy bending pose.

Tenzin frowned, catching eyes with Lin. "I think they are trying to rob us," he said, quite unamused now.

"Are they serious?" she muttered under her breath. A look back at the kids, though, and it was evident they were. Her uniform was covered by her coat and it was obvious they did not understand what the tattoos over Tenzin's head and exposed hands signified. They were, indeed, being robbed. Or at least, the teenagers thought they were doing the robbing.

"Four against two," the leader said to bring their attention back. "We're all four of us benders and we don't care about beating up geezers like you."

"Okay, now I'm actually angry," Lin grumbled to Tenzin, whose frown was so deep by that point wrinkles were showing on his forehead.

"They called us old, Lin. I'm getting rather upset now myself. That was a personal affront, an insult!" He looked at the kids again. They had all taken bending stances now – all Earthbenders, by outward appearances, ones who likely didn't fight much – and were trying very hard not to seem out of sorts that these adults they were trying so hard to threaten were not cowing to their words.

Lin sighed, dropping her bag to the ground. "You know what?" she said to them. "I don't have any money on me, I rarely carry any. But I'm an Earthbender, too, and I've have a rough few days. Go ahead."

When she turned to face them fully, the girl loosened her form, gaze darting quickly over Lin's appearance. "How'd you get those scars?" she asked boldly, though she was losing some of her bluster from just moments before at the older woman's extreme lack of fear.

"Taking care of myself," she returned, falling into an aggressive stance against them. The earth slid under her feet, ready to work.

The girl backed down right away at the movement, startled, but two of the boys immediately threw large rocks in her direction. Lin hardly moved to break them, letting the rubble fall to the path. Tenzin opened into a stance beside her then, shoving the third rock away with a burst of air.

Several more rocks flew, and she deflected them all without throwing a single blow in return. Tenzin was hardly breaking a sweat doing the same. It was getting dull, though, this sluggish onslaught, and she started looking for a quick end after only a few more seconds. The leader tried to slowly pull a boulder from the path, but Lin snapped the earth's will from him and turned the ground to sand. She rapidly expanded the pit to swallow their feet and spun it, bringing them around twice until they fell to their knees.

By the time they crawled out, none of the four raised a hand again, each glaring up at them. "Why are you restoring to thievery?" Tenzin asked – quite patiently considering they had just attacked – his posture already relaxed beside Lin's rigidity. "I thought your country was at peace again. You have other options."

"What other options?" the girl snapped, wiping sand from her trousers and pulling off a boot to hold it upside down.

Another boy did the same, his face furious. "Guess it's taking a while for peace to get everywhere," he muttered sarcastically. "Kuvira left our village pretty much destroyed. If we didn't stick together like this we'd all starve."

Lin and Tenzin looked at one another and, sighing in slight annoyance as she anticipated what he was going to ask, she held out her bag to him. He took it with a small smile, and she didn't watch as he opened it and extracted a parcel of food. Not enough to leave themselves hungry, but enough that they would have to track their days away carefully unless they wanted to resort to scavenging. Lin crossed her arms, peering around as Tenzin extended the parcel out.

The leader took it warily, eyeing Tenzin with the expression of a distrustful animal. "What's this for?"

"So perhaps you will stop stealing from people," Tenzin said pointedly, "and ask politely instead. Lin and I would have helped you if you had simply requested so."

"Speak for yourself," Lin muttered under her breath.

Tenzin glanced at her and away again, lips quirking into a grin. The boy pulled the parcel close and tore the wrappings open, revealing several fresh steamed vegetable buns of different flavors. The others leaned in, reaching to grab one, but he smacked their hands away. "Is there a catch here?" he asked, eyebrows narrowed.

"Just stop accosting people," Tenzin said, "and find other means to get yourselves fed. Lin?" he turned to her, gesturing down the path to continue on their way.

She gratefully struck out on the path again, not giving the kids another look. Tenzin took a few long strides to catch up with her, handing her bag back so she could heft it onto her shoulders again. "Quite a bit of excitement for the morning, wasn't it?" he asked, a smile on his face.

"I hope you're not going to give all our food away to every vagabond and ruffian we meet along the way," she said sourly.

"Of course not," Tenzin replied good-naturedly. "There wouldn't be any left for you if I did that, and you're enough of a ruffian for any we would meet out here."

Lin punched his arm hard for his attempt at a joke, but she still couldn't help her laugh.

xXx

It was nearing dusk when Tenzin began to lag, his steps faltering just a bit though still enough for Lin to notice. She paused, stopping to look over at him. He waved a hand dismissively at her concern, but she narrowed her eyes and stared at him until he shrugged.

"One of those teenagers actually hit me," he said, not making a fuss of it. She reached for him, and he gently pushed her hands away to continue walking. "I'm fine, it was just a little bump. Their aim was terribly lacking, you saw how bad it was."

"Tenzin," Lin scolded, "why didn't you tell me hours ago! Even bad aim can hurt if it hits the wrong place." She ignored his feigned obliviousness and grabbed his arm, leading him from the path and toward the rocky edge of mountains again. They hadn't seen any other people since leaving their attempted robbers much earlier in the day, but she opened a small cave to give them shelter from passers-by and the wind anyway.

"I can't believe you," she muttered, shoving him sit on the ground as she snatched his bag and dropped it with hers by the wall. She took his glider, as well, though she was gentle with it as she propped it nearby. "After all the grief you give me for ignoring my own injuries, here you are doing the same fucking thing. Really, Tenzin, what is wrong with you?"

"It's just a little bruise!" he said, batting her hands away again when she pushed him all the way to the ground to lie on his back.

"A bruise!" Lin scoffed derisively. She glared until he stopped fighting her and unbuttoned his cloak, then his robes to push them away layer by layer to reveal his chest to the cold. Goosebumps immediately erupted over his skin. He opened his mouth to complain, but she spoke first. "You baby. Where does it hurt? Oh, wait, there really is a bruise here. Those little brats actually injured you! I should go right back there and -"

"Lin! It's really not so -"

But his words were interrupted by her fingers prodding the darkening bruise on his side, checking to see just how bad it was. She released the pressure quickly and moved her hands out over the rest of his chest to look for any other possible wounds. It took effort to remain detached from the feeling of his skin under her fingertips. They had worked hard to keep a very firm boundary around touch like this, and here she was plowing it down in a moment of worry for his health. She hadn't even noticed what she was doing until then, when she felt his muscle so firm under her hands, and she finished her cursory exam and pressed her palms flat to his abdomen as she knelt there, not wanting to move away.

"Do I pass the test, then?" he asked softly through the growing tension.

She didn't meet his eyes, her gaze set firmly on her hands as she held tightly to her resolve not to act while it tried far too hard to wriggle away from her. "The soreness will be gone by tomorrow night," she murmured. "It really isn't so bad."

His hand came up over his torso to cover hers, though he didn't move any more than that.

"Tenzin…" She shook her head, not sure how to form the words she wanted to say. She bit her lip and released it again, pushing forward with her frustrating thoughts. "Tenzin, Jinora knows. About what – what's going on with us," she clarified when his expression turned confused.

Tenzin sat up, gathering her hands fully into his. "How do you know?" he asked, voice concerned now. "Did she say something to you?"

Lin shook her head again, still not meeting his eyes. "No. I could just tell, right before we left yesterday. She saw the way we – I don't know, the way we looked at each other when I wasn't paying attention to myself. I'm sorry."

He squeezed her hands, threading their fingers together in a kind of uneasiness when he felt her withdrawing from him. "We're not doing anything wrong, Lin," he pleaded, trying to justify the last several months without losing her completely. "And Pema -"

"Pema doesn't have a clue," Lin said sadly, her voice slowly starting to rise with her discontent. "I'm basically having an affair with her husband – with you – and she doesn't have the faintest idea. She even still invites me to dinner once a month! What kind of person am I, Tenzin, to let this keep happening?"

"What are you talking about? We are not doing anything inappropriate," he told her firmly, even if she could feel his faint lie through the earth despite him almost believing it himself. He was saying this for both of them, to keep what they had now from falling apart. "We haven't had sex, we haven't even kissed!"

Lin took a deep breath and closed her eyes, focusing on his heartbeat and breathing through the stone under her and letting it calm her nerves. The guilt had come in waves over the years, always easy to push away every time he was near her. Seeing Pema the day before, though, and having to watch Jinora realize something may be amiss – suddenly that guilt wasn't so easy to ignore.

"Lin. Look at me, Lin."

She slowly turned her gaze to his, and Tenzin brought their clasped hands to his lips to kiss her knuckles. "I'm not going to lose you," he said, not a hint of his previous desperation coloring his words. "Not again, not now. Whatever has to change, if nothing changes – I am not losing you again."

Tears stung her eyes at his sincerity and the intensity of the love pouring from him through the earth. "I don't want things to stay the same," she murmured, breaking her hands from his and feeling the jump of his heart until she leaned forward to cup them to his face. "I want them to change. I want you, Tenzin. I can't care about consequences anymore."

Tenzin's arms wrapped up around her back, bringing her closer as she brought her face to his and kissed him soundly on the mouth. The tension released itself with a sigh between them, and he deepened the kiss after only a moment, relishing the sensation of her lips moving eagerly against his. Her armor was chilly against the skin of his chest when she pressed against him, sending a thrill through his body. They had been close numerous times, certainly, but this…they hadn't shared a kiss in so many years, and he moved one of his hands up to curl around the back of her neck, hair tickling his knuckles.

Lin pulled away the slightest bit, enough to unlatch the sides of her hauberk. Tenzin pressed his lips to her jaw, gently helping her slide the armor away from her body. He let his hands flutter over her stomach, up her shoulders, leaning back to lift the piece up and away. He waited until she released her gauntlets and then carefully took both in his grasp to tug away, setting them on the ground.

She smiled at him, reaching out to draw him back for another fiery kiss. "I am not -" She canted her head to the side when he moved to trail his lips down her neck to her collarbone, only to come back up again to find her scars. "I'm not going to have sex out here in the cold wilderness, but -"

"But I am going to continue kissing you," Tenzin breathed against her. "I can't stop."

His hands slid beneath the waistband of her pants to rest on the back of her hips, bringing a quick intake of breath from her, but he withdrew them again to wrap one arm around her waist as the other hand found purchase at the back of her head. He wasn't even sure where he wanted to touch, now that she had opened herself to him, and he pulled her close so her entire body was pressed to his, firm and muscled and soft in all the right places. Her legs wrapped around him as she fell into his lap.

"Is this a mistake?" she asked breathlessly, kissing him hard again regardless. He opened his mouth to hers, insistent in its passion, not able to answer just yet when all he could think about was her.

"No," he finally said, meeting her eyes as they both panted quietly. "How could it be, when I love you so much?" He nestled his face against her flushed neck, slowly starting to calm down through the heat of the moment. "I love you, I do."

Lin raised her hand to cradle his head to her, shifting slightly to get comfortable as she slipped from his lap to settle just next to him on the ground. "Pretty sure I love you, too." She chuckled, though, and turned to kiss his temple. "But I still can't believe you gave away some of our food."