Love is Brightest in the Dark

Chapter 13

The sky had become a soft pink as the sun began to sink towards the horizon by the time Lin and Kya returned to Zaofu. As they dismounted Oogie, Su and Korra came rushing towards them. "Where have you two been all day?" Su asked, crossing her arms. "Lin and I would love to tell you all about our adventures today but we really must be getting ready. We'll meet you at the sparring arena, okay?" said Kya as she linked arms with Lin and rushed towards their rooms. "We have to get ready? What do we have to do? We're just sparring," said Lin. "Would you rather have stood there for another second with your sister grilling us?" This seemed to shut Lin up and they finished their walk in silence. "I'll see you in the ring," Kya gave Lin a quick kiss on the cheek and hurried off to her room. "What if I don't have to get ready?" Lin called after Kya, but she had already disappeared out of sight. Lin rolled her eyes and began to make her way towards the sparring ring. She began cracking her knuckles nervously as she attempted to get into her fighting headspace. She found it increasingly difficult to gain any semblance of concentration as what happened in the cave with Kya replayed over and over again in her head. Lin bit her lip as she recalled the way Kya's bare skin felt against her- this was going to be harder than she thought. She rolled her shoulders back as she strode outside into the warm evening air and looked around, expecting to see Korra and Su already waiting for her. Finding herself alone, she decided to warm up with some pull ups to try and focus her mind. "One, two, three, four," she counted quietly to herself. She had almost made it to ten when she felt something hard hit her in the back. "Hey!" She turned to see Su keeping a small stone suspended in the air, ready to strike again. "Words work too," Lin said as she began her pull ups again. "Are you going to tell me what you and Kya were up to today?" "It's not really any of your business." "I thought we decided to be more open and honest with each other?" "Listen," Lin began, dropping down from the bar. "To my credit, I've been very honest. This is all new to me. Su, just please be patient with me. I'm still.... Processing." "Okay, okay- I'll back off. But just know that I'm really happy for you. Both of you. Whatever the two of you have I can see that it makes you happy." "Thanks, Su." They stood in awkward silence, Su's bracelets jingling noisily as she fiddled with her rings. "I'll just go get Korra. She should be somewhere around here," Su mumbled to herself as she walked away from her sister, leaving Lin once again alone.

Before too long, Su, Korra, and Kya all came walking out into the arena chatting excitedly amongst themselves. "Okay ladies, let's have a good clean match," said Su before earth bending a large stone bench for herself and Korra. "Good luck, Chief!" Korra yelled. Lin nodded in acknowledgement of Korra's encouragement and shook hands with Kya. "Good luck." "You as well," said Kya. The two took ten paces apart from each other, waiting for Su's signal. "Begin!" This time, Lin was the first to attack. She wasted no time before sending large boulders plummeting towards Kya one after the other. Kya dodged quickly, shooting sharp icicles in return. Deciding to show off a bit, Lin utilized her surroundings- bending the metal siding of the arena into a shield. She felt the vibrations of the frozen daggers as they made contact and plotted her next move. Before she could even move, she looked up to see a tidal wave well over 20 feet tall forming, ready to crash over her. Instead of going on the defensive as she had done before, Lin used her earth bending to launch herself up and through the wave, taking Kya completely off guard. She saw Kya's eyes widen in surprise as she dove through the other side of the wave straight towards the water bender. Just before Lin collided with her, Kya shot another strong spray of water at Lin, knocking her off course and onto the ground. Lin gasped for air as the wind had been knocked out of her, never losing sight of her target. Using all of her strength, Lin propelled herself up onto her feet and with a swift but precise movement of her hands, brought the earth around Kya- leaving her completely incapacitated. Lin walked slowly over to Kya who's brow was furrowed in frustration and bowed to her opponent. Kya in return bowed her head, admitting to her defeat. Lin quickly freed Kya from her earthly bonds, and smiled widely at her. "Not bad, Beifong." "You have a little...." Lin pointed to small traces of dirt smudged on Kya's cheek and without thinking, gently brushed it away. Forgetting herself, Lin quickly dropped her hand and stuck her hand out in a gruff manor. "You fight good," was all Lin could manage to which Kya raised an eyebrow. "That was awesome, Chief!" Korra gushed, approaching Lin with Su by her side. "I have to say, Lin, I've never seen anyone dive headfirst into a waterbending attack. That was.... Something else." Su shook her head in disbelief smiling at her sister. "Sometimes you have to just not think too much," Kya said, slapping Lin on the back. "Well that was certainly enough excitement for one day, wouldn't you say?" said Su as she ushered the women up the stone steps. Korra fell back to walk in step with Lin and Kya, making sure to be just out of earshot of Su. "I know it's none of my business," Korra started. "But you two make a really cute couple." Kya and Lin looked between each other, eyes wide in surprise. "How did you-" Kya started. "Intuition." Korra gave them a quick wink before hurrying along after Su. Kya looked over at Lin who was surprisingly calm. "Lin? You okay?" "Why wouldn't I be?" "I don't know, Korra just figured out we were together and you are not really reacting to that?" Lin exhaled slowly, "I'm not worried about Korra knowing or even Su for that matter. It's just the thought of being so... public. That's what scares me." "I'm in no rush. The world will know when we're ready." Kya leaned over to Lin and gave her a quick peck on the cheek. "Now let's go get something to eat. I'm starving."