Lives Forgotten

Promises

Tenzin didn't return from the day of council meetings until late. The children hoped they would miss out on the lecture by trying to go to sleep early, but Pema dragged them out of their bed rooms and went to fetch Opal from the girls' dormitories on the island.

"I will let you deal with them," Pema said heading off to the master bedroom of the main house on the island.

"So where exactly did you go?" Tenzin asked.

"Well, we kind of went to the Beifong Estate in Republic City," Opal confessed.

"Why?" Tenzin asked sitting down.

"We were curious," Jinora replied.

"Daddy, when I went to get your folder this morning, I saw a photograph on your desk underneath it and wanted to know who was in it, so I kind of... took it." Ikki confessed with her head hanging in shame and her eyes fixed on a frayed part of the carpet beneath her feet.

"Ikki," Tenzin began to say before the front door was thrown clean off of its hinges and onto the floor with a heavy thud revealing the Chief of Police on their door step.

"Forgive me children, I need to speak to your father," Lin growled.

"I think the metalbender told her mother," Meelo whispered.

"No shit, Meelo!" Ikki replied.

"What did you do?" Tenzin asked slouching his shoulders in despair.

"Tenzin, quit this groveling; she didn't murder your children. You should be grateful. Now get up before I make you!" Lin ordered ignoring an absolutely floored Pema standing quietly in the corner. Tenzin stood up meekly and followed her into the night.

"I gave you sixteen years to destroy all evidence of whatever it was that we had. Sixteen years! I destroyed everything we had on this island and kept silent as you asked, and you couldn't even burn a few photographs? I held up my end of the deal. The least you could do is hold up yours!" Lin yelled at him as they walked along a private beach below a rather high cliff where a house used to stand.

"Lin, how could I possibly burn everything and pretend none of it ever happened?! How can I pretend they don't exist?"

"Because that is what you wanted us to do about you! We did everything for you and you still cast us out! You still let the White Lotus control you! The least you could do is eliminate all possibility of those memories resurfacing, if not for you, then for Pema and her children!" Lin replied shoving him into the sand as tears stung her eyes. "She cried tonight. She was crying when I came home, for the first time in THIRTEEN YEARS, and I couldn't console her, Tenzin!" Lin screamed at him knowing the waves and the surf would drown out their voices for whomever stood above trying to listen, if anyone.

Tenzin sat in the sand in silence for a moment before changing. "You're putting all the blame on me for making her cry? You're just like your sister! If you just started having children sooner, the White Lotus wouldn't have ever been all over our asses about anything! We'd be together and your children wouldn't be so messed up?"

"You're joking right? I'm sorry, I wouldn't be your air bender incubator when I was twenty! I am sorry for being a human being with my own desires and needs! I am sorry for not being an empty-headed little air acolyte with no home, no possessions, no job or hobbies and nothing better to do than fuck and be fucked! You had NO RIGHT to keep those photos after you PROMISED to get rid of them."

"Lin!" Tenzin yelled reaching for her hand, but quickly recoiled his arm as her fingers curled into a wrist, deploying the blade that was stored in the sleeve of her police armor.