From here out, the rating will edge close to M for violence and language (and possibly some other things), though not quite enough to change the rating completely for the entire story. Just wanted to make a note here for anyone who may want to keep an eye open to skim those parts.

Also – is anyone attending DragonCon this year? I may be getting a pass myself for that Saturday for the first time in several years, so if any of you are going to be there send me a message! We can get coffee/tea/dessert and talk Korra. And by Korra I basically mean Lin.

Enjoy!

Warrior Raging

Chapter 5

Lin woke before him early the next morning, and she closed her eyes again against the bright sun creeping over the earthen floor of her small cave as she nestled closer to Tenzin's body. He was warm and comfortable, exuding security she didn't want to lose even by sitting up to stretch. Reality was just beyond, nudging insistently from the corners of her mind, but she wanted to hold onto this for as long as she could, to simply pretend it was just them here in this moment alone without worries or cares.

Tenzin took a deep, sleepy breath under her, his arms tightening unconsciously around her waist, and she opened her eyes despite her wish to ignore the future held in their quickly approaching day. She waited another moment before brushing her hand over his chest to his shoulder with the intention of waking him fully.

"Hey, Airhead," she whispered, her voice soft and barely reaching his ears.

He smiled faintly, slowly starting to come to, and he raised a lethargic hand to the back of her head to run his fingers through her hair. "Good morning, Lin."

"Time to get up," she said. "It's getting late."

"And by late, you mean…"

She grinned at the sleepiness slurring his words as she unhurriedly began to untangle her legs from his so she could sit. "A little after seven, I'd guess. Retirement has ruined your internal clock." She poked his side and he curled away from her, bringing a wider smile to her lips. But it vanished again quickly. "Do you think we'll reach the swamp today?"

Tenzin sat up beside her and stretched his arms over his head, urging the stupor from his muscles. "I can fly us most of the way, if you want. I'm feeling up to it, the distance shouldn't be a problem."

"I'd appreciate that, thank you."

"Lin?"

She turned her head to look at him with only a hint of hesitation, easily catching the reservation in his tone. His eyes were downcast, eyebrows drawn, but he met her gaze when he felt it on him. "Yes?" she pushed when he didn't continue.

"We're going to have to talk about this – us – now, aren't we?" he asked softly.

It was something they had been avoiding for so long, their progressing relationship over the last several years, but after the heat of the moment last night everything they had been ignoring had suddenly ignited to flare in their faces. Her stomach twisted slightly as she remembered, far too vividly, losing him to Pema the first time, and her lips turned down at the corners as an odd mixture of apprehension and some kind fierce need to defend what they had settled through her body. Even still, regardless of what she felt in that moment, regardless of the deep love she had never lost for him, she would let herself be damned before facing that pain again.

"I believe we should," she finally said in answer to his question. "But I also think…" She paused, taking a breath and letting it out quickly. "I think we should both really consider what we want before jumping head first into anything. All right?"

"All right."

He couldn't resist, though, reaching out to gently trace his fingers along her jaw before tugging her closer for a very chaste kiss.

xXx

The hard earth below them soon gave way to thick tree cover. They hadn't quite reached the swamp yet, but they were getting close. Tenzin had covered at least two days' worth foot travel by air over the last nine hours even with breaks here and there, and Lin began looking for a good place for them to land so they could continue on the ground. She pointed to a thin patch in the trees, which Tenzin quickly veered toward.

She held tightly to his shoulders as he angled them downward, tilting to avoid branches and vines. It was only another moment before his feet alighted on the earth with hardly a puff of air to stir the damp dirt.

"I don't think 'loathing' is a strong enough word to describe how I feel about this place," Lin muttered, releasing the rope from her waist and getting to the ground herself after Tenzin closed his glider.

He just chuckled, glancing around. They were certainly on the outskirts of the large swampland, with the thicker threes and underbrush closing to their sides. No use flying from here, the rest of the way would definitely have to be on foot. Lin smacked some low-hanging fronds from what could almost have been a path, peering gloomily ahead.

"I bet Ma already knows we're here," she grumbled unhappily, taking a step over a large root to start walking. Tenzin followed. "And yet she's going to make me search her out, just watch. Crazy old bat."

She stopped suddenly, Tenzin almost plowing into her back before noticing she wasn't continuing forward, and planted her foot firmly to the ground to send out seismic waves through the earth. They traveled far, though not picking up anything aside from plants and animals, as well as a small camp of people far in the distance. Toph wouldn't be there. She started moving again.

It was difficult not to grow frustrated the further they traveled. There was a part of her – a rather large part, if she were honest – that wished she had never left the city. She could be there now, she knew, working on the case. She might even have cracked it open, if she had stayed. But then, she had to remind herself, she had left to remove Tenzin from danger, not really to find her mother. Toph may be able to help, yes, and perhaps the threat to Tenzin was a small excuse to come this way, but she would have done anything to keep him safe.

Every so often she would stop to sense the earth, looking hard through her element for her mother. Tenzin didn't stop her or ask to rest, and the sun had already been set for an hour when she finally felt a single human heartbeat.

Lin led the way through muddy water and between large, mossy trees until the faint glow of a cooking fire – and the savory scent food that came with it – could be seen through the thick leaves and underbrush around them. A rather large cave opened in the face of a huge rock nestled in a large grove of tall, heavily-fronded trees and bushes.

An old lady was standing in the entrance, backlit by the fire.

"It sure took you long enough," she said snappily, already turning around to go back in out of the damp chill. "I made tea two hours ago, it's cold and you're going to drink it anyway."

"Nice to see you, too, Mom," Lin muttered, frowning deeply as she broke free of the remaining vines and entered the cave behind her. Tenzin was close on her heels.

"You brought Twinkle Toes Junior!" Toph cried in delight with a wide smile opening across her face. "Look at that," she said with a hearty laugh. "You two fucked again. I knew you would. Katara owes me fifty yuan."

Tenzin had started to say hello to her initial greeting, but the words choked in his mouth when she continued and his face flamed. Lin, though, glared at her even though she couldn't see it. "Your feet must be getting old, Ma, we've done nothing of the sort," she said dryly, the words still rather off-put. Tenzin, at least, could see the faint red staining her cheeks, as well, before she calmed herself.

Toph pretended to scowl. "No?" she asked, cocking her head to the side. "Well, you've done something. Hey," she hastened to add before either could speak, "I don't judge – and I sure as fuck don't care. Do whatever you want, you both have enough of that stupid love thing goin' on to fill this whole spirit-infested swamp. Aang always said that's all anyone needed, didn't he?"

Lin rolled her eyes to the rocky ceiling, taking another deep breath as she let go of the argument building on her tongue. "That was a nice welcome. Whatever happened to a simple 'hello'?"

Her mother guffawed, coming forward to punch Lin in the arm and denting her armor through her coat. "I missed you, too, kid. So, what are you doing here? Just stopping by to…say hello?" She laughed again at her own joke.

"Well, actually, I was hoping you would be able to help me identify something." Lin dropped her bag to the ground and, glancing quickly up at Tenzin – who still had not spoken, though his mouth was somewhat agape at the conversation he'd just heard – opened it to dig down into one of the inside pouches to withdraw the bronze coin. She handed it to Toph, who had already extended her hand for whatever was going to be given.

"Right down to business, that's my girl." She was still as she took only a second to run her fingers over the metal. "Oh, this. I made tons of these things."

Her answer was lacking, and certainly not what Lin was expecting for how exceedingly unhelpful it was. She frowned. "This one was given to me by a man named Lang during the course of an investigation. Do you remember him?"

"Lang…" She tried the name out loud, thinking silently for a moment before speaking. "Yeah, I remember him. He was an informant for me, way back when. He ran some lousy restaurant a crime boss frequented, and he fed me information on what was going on behind closed doors before the crimes could take place. I gave him this coin to show my officers, in case he was ever arrested by accident. Got him out of a few tight spots. His tips helped us close that ring before it ever really got claws in the city. Is he all right?"

Lin and Tenzin looked at one another again, and he let Lin speak. "He witnessed a double murder earlier this week. He won't talk."

"And," Toph continued for her, "he gave you this coin because he doesn't feel safe."

"Yes."

"You're not telling me everything. You could have gotten through to him without coming here." Her mother turned sightless eyes in her direction, pinning her to her spot on the ground and feeling her thudding heart through the earth. Lin wasn't used to being so exposed anymore and she just swallowed. "Not only did you come all the way out here for no apparent reason, you brought Tenzin when you just as easily could have come alone. One of you is in trouble."

Lin's expression closed quickly and the scowl that had been pulling at it vanished. She only needed one steadying breath to get herself fully under control, and she saw the moment it worked when her mother's lips pursed. "It doesn't matter," she said stiffly. "We're fine."

"Damn, you've turned into a good liar. You were always better at getting away with shit than Su because of that, had it nailed by the time you were fourteen. So." Toph turned swiftly on her heel to face the still-silent Tenzin, whose eyes widened in surprise. "I'll ask you, instead. You don't know how to lie, I can feel you sweating already. What the bloody spirits is going on here?"

"I, well -" He tried to find Lin's eyes through the flickering firelight, but she wasn't looking anywhere near him. "Just as Lin said," he flustered after another moment, "she wanted to get your opinion on the coin."

"Wrong," Toph growled. "Try again."

"Ma, stop. If you really want to know – the murders where gang-affiliated and, when I wouldn't turn the case closed, they sent me a message threatening Tenzin." Lin sighed, leaning her head back against the cool stone wall and letting her gaze slide over to the two of them. "I figured it would be best to get him out of the city for a few days. Lang gave me the coin the day before, I decided to kill two birds with one stone."

Toph grinned in triumph, plopping herself down near the fire. "Give 'im jasmine tea."

"What?" Lin was too tired to be angry by then, and she just shook her head slowly in vague exasperation. "Give who jasmine tea?"

"Lang," she clarified with a wider, toothy smile. "Make sure to get the water too hot and scald the leaves, you know, like I used to do. He'll tell you anything, once he has that tea. Will know I told you how to 'make' it." She made the air quotes around the word with knobby fingers, laughing as she did. "I hate jasmine tea."

"Are you serious?" Lin asked irritably. "I came all the way out here for you to tell me how to scald tea for this man?"

"You sure did! But then, you actually did it for baldy here, not for anyone else. Don't kid yourself, badgermole." Her laugh this time was more of a chuckle, but her smile was just as wide. "It's so sweet I could vomit."

Abruptly, Lin turned her stormy face to find Tenzin still hovering uncertainly in the entrance. "We can go now."

"Tell 'er to stay," Toph interrupted with a dismissive wave of her hand in his direction. "It's going to be cold out there tonight, frost has already started creeping in. I've actually been thinking of going somewhere warmer myself in the next few weeks, maybe to the Fire Nation to see Zuko. You got here just in time." Lin was silent, though that was all that was needed to count as acceptance. "Pull up a rock or whatever you want. Just no touching, if you two can manage it; I don't need to know what my daughter and her lover do at night."