Deeper Than This (Linzin Fanfic)

Prologue

"I love you," Pema whispers as she lays in the bed.

She's drunk, Tenzin thinks.

"I love you, too, Pema." Tenzin smiles and shuts the door. He turns around, smile fading. He walks through the hallway, head low.

Soon, he bumps into something. Someone.

"Tenzin?" he asks.

Tenzin raises his head.

"Yes, Father?"

"What's wrong?" Aang asks.

"Um, nothing. Have you heard anything about..."

"No, I'm afraid not." Aang looks out the window and sighs. "But I'm sure she would've wanted to be here for your wedding."

Tenzin cringes. He wanted to marry her.

"Yes, I know."

"Why don't you go talk to Aunt Toph? She's in the kitchen."

"She doesn't want to talk to me, Dad."

"Just, try to make her feel better."

Tenzin sighs and pushes past his father into the kitchen.

There, Toph Bei Fong, the Chief Bei Fong, has her head on the table, crying.

Tenzin, unsure what to do, stands awkwardly in the doorway. It has been a whole year.

Toph lifts her head.

"Tenzin?" she asks.

"Yes?"

"What are you doing here?" she yells, rising from we chair. "You make me sick, you know that?"

"I had to!" Tenzin yells back.

"Don't yell at me! You didn't have to! If you loved her like I do, you wouldn't have given up on the search!"

"Toph she's gone!" he yells, and starts to sob. He sinks to his knees. "She's... gone," he whispers. He know it must be crazy for a twenty-three year old man to be crying on the floor, especially since he just got married five hours ago.

But to his suprise, Toph sits beside him and wraps him in her arms as she silently cries.

"I loved her," Tenzin whispers as they both sniffle. "I still love her."

"Then why did you marry Pema?" Toph asks. Toph has never been sweet, but when they talk about Lin being missing along with many police officers while on a training session that Toph ordered her to take, her tone loosens.

"Dad told me I needed to move on. He said he knows I love her, but it's been a year. I was his only Airbender child, so I had to find someone else."

"Sometimes I wonder what happened to TwinkleToes. He used to be cool."
Tenzin laughs.

Toph suddenly stops, freezing.

"What?"

"Someone is... laying on the door step."

"Laying?"

"Yea..." just then a there is a soft knock at the door.

"Toph, you never cease to amaze me," Tenzin smiles. "Who is it?"

"I can't tell. They seem pretty beat up though, and it's raining pretty hard.
Come on, TwinkleToes Jr." She holds out a hand for him. He takes it. "I'll be in here you need backup," she says, siting on the table and slipping the moon earth off of her arm. She shapes it around in many forms. She does this when she gets nervous or upset.
When Sokka died, two years ago, everyone was heartbroken, and Toph took half of the moonpiece and laid it in his grave. He died in combat.
Tenzin goes to the door and prepares for the worst.

The worst, not this.

Her eyes look up at him lazily.

"Hey," she says.

He takes her in his arms as he weeps.

"Lin, I missed you so much."