Regrets (Complete)

Chapter Eleven

The afternoon after Lin had left Kya found herself in a daze as she stared out over the sparkling water towards the city. Everyone else was eating lunch but her appetite hadn't been what it usually was the last few days. She was trying so hard to stay strong for Lin and her brother and everyone but it was taking its toll on her.

"Hey."

Kya tensed as Tenzin walked to her side. He didn't look at her but mirrored her gaze as he, too stared to the city. To where Lin was. They stood there for several minutes in awkward silence.

"Do you regret it, Ten? What happened with Lin-"

"Yes."

"Yeah. I thought so."

Kya had spent her entire life living in the shadow of her family's legacy and never feeling like she was enough for any of them. Then her brother made the biggest mistake of his life by giving up Lin fucking Beifong and his loss eventually became her gain. And everything was great. Both she and Lin had their issues but they were older now and working through them. They were both so blissfully happy, they were healing.

But now.

Now it felt like all the progress of the last 20 years was in danger of collapsing in on itself. Of course Kya was happy that Lin might actually have a second chance with a daughter she thought long lost but she just wasn't sure where she was going to fit in in that new future. It was the uncertainty that threatened her most. If this had been a different time in her life she would have already fled, running away and leaving her problems behind her. But things were different now. She was a different person.

And she loved Lin.

Spirits, it sometimes scared her how much she could love a person. And there it was. The reality was she didn't care about the potentially complicated family dynamic or awkward interactions with a kid she barely knew existed. No, it was the fear of losing what she had with Lin that was eating her alive.

She looked away from Tenzin as her eyes filled with tears.

"Kya?"

"Lin regrets it too. I know she does."

She felt a hand on her shoulder and finally faced him. He smiled at her sadly, wiping a stray tear across her cheek.

"I do regret how things ended. But because of how badly it hurt Lin. I've spent a lot of time thinking about what my life may have been like if I had stayed with Lin and I do think we could've been happy if the circumstances had been different. But..."

He turned to look over his shoulder and into the house where his children laughed, Pema bustling around them and practically glowing as she doting on them.

"But I can also say with equal conviction that I don't regret any of it because if things hadn't gone so poorly with Lin at the end there I wouldn't have any of this."

He gestured to his home before turning back to her.

"And Lin wouldn't have found you."

Kya let out a small laugh, sniffing as she wiped a hand across her nose. He was completely right. Without their respective pasts they wouldn't even be standing where they were in this moment in time. They couldn't change the choices they had made all those years ago but they could learn from them. She just needed to keep herself together so maybe she and Lin could come out of it as strong as ever.

"Since when did you become so wise? You sound like dad."

She playfully nudged him in the shoulder and they both chuckled.

"I am happy for you Kya. You know that, right? I'm happy that you have each other."

Kya's smile turned wicked.