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white_lotus2012-06-20 01:57 pm
FIC: Wind Will Wrap Around You (Tenzin, Lin, OC, G)
Fandom: Legend of Korra
Rating: G
Characters: Tenzin, his family, OC
Pairing(s): Tenzin/Pema; past Tenzin/Lin
Content Notes: Spoilers for LoK 1.10, "Turning the Tides". No other warnings apply.
Summary: (Even the summary is spoilery! Highlight to reveal.) With Lin captured, Tenzin has to break the news to their son.
Wind Will Wrap Around You
by LizBee
They flew through the night, but still the afternoon was almost over before they landed in the courtyard of the United Republic's embassy in Omashu. Tenzin leapt down from Oogi's back, stretching muscles that had never before complained, and was reaching up to help Pema down when a door slammed open and an armoured figure rushed into the courtyard.
"Dad!"
"Wei."
They exchanged a brief hug, made awkward by the armour and the time apart.
"And Pema. And--"
"Rohan," supplied Tenzin, taking the baby and letting Wei help his stepmother climb down from Oogi's saddle.
"Wei!"
The older children were already on the ground -- in the loosest possible sense of the word -- their exhaustion forgotten in the excitement of seeing their eldest brother.
"They attacked the island!"
"We helped Chief Beifong fight them off!"
"She's my hero."
Wei raised the ground beneath them and pulled them into a big, tight hug.
"I'm so glad you're all okay," he said.
"I'm a big brother now," Meelo announced. "I'm very important."
"I never doubted it. Any time you need advice, I'm your man. I have impeccable references."
He swept the kids inside, leaving Tenzin free to hold Pema and the baby close. He closed his eyes briefly, buried his face in her hair and breathed.
"He needs to know," said Pema.
"I know. I just ... don't want to let him down again."
She squeezed his hand.
"When the moment's right," he said.
First he had to see the ambassador and give a formal account of all that had happened, and get a report on the current whereabouts of General Iroh's fleet. The news that came from Republic City itself was purely rumour, but no credible sources suggested the Avatar had been captured.
Amon boasted of having Chiefs Beifong and Saikhan and three councillors as his captives. That was confirmed.
In the study the ambassador had turned over for his use, Tenzin said, "Wei ... about your mother."
"Jinora told me."
"I'm sorry."
"What?" Wei's smile made him look like Lin's mother. "That you didn't risk your wife and four small children to rescue her from a fate she'd obviously accepted?"
Wei reached for the transcripts of Amon's radio broadcasts. He looked younger when he was concentrating, more like the solemn thirteen year old who had listened to Tenzin's apologies ("Your mother and I don't love each other any more, but we will always, always love you, and I am so very sorry for all the changes this will bring") and said, "But what will change, Dad? You and Mom haven't lived together since I was tiny."
"I might have more children with Pema."
"Because I'm an earthbender, and you want airbenders?"
"No! Never!"
"Then what's the problem?"
If he had secretly doubted Tenzin's assurances, he never told him. Nor, Tenzin suspected, had he ever confided in Lin. If he'd harboured private fears that his father was rejecting him, he probably shared them with Toph or Aang, and both grandparents had taken his secret to the grave.
Now the boy had grown into a man who doted on his half-siblings and wrote dutiful letters to his last living grandparent, called his mother and father once a week, and maintained a careful distance from the city of his birth.
Wei said, "Will they kill her?"
"That seems unlikely."
"But Amon will take her bending."
"I expect he already has."
He put the transcripts down. "When are you going back to Republic City?"
"As soon as Oogi has rested. I'll rendezvous with General Iroh's fleet."
"I'm coming with you."
"Certainly not!"
Wei raised his eyebrows, his face cold and his jaw set. The sudden resemblance to Lin was startling.
"I need to know there's someone I can trust watching over Pema and the children," Tenzin explained. "Anyone here could be--"
"Everyone in the embassy has been carefully vetted," Wei retorted. "And if anything happens, the Queen of Omashu will give your family sanctuary. The entire world would unite to protect the last airbenders."
"I know. I just--"
"Dad. Father." Wei put his hand on Tenzin's arm. "She's my mother. And it's my city. Grandfather once told me that Republic City was built to be a home for people like me. Let me help you fight for it."
Tenzin exhaled slowly.
"Lin will never forgive me if anything happens to you."
"Good. She likes being angry. She finds it energising."
They left the next afternoon, to make contact with General Iroh and prepare for the fight to come.
Out of the corner of his eye, Tenzin could see his son bending the dark metal he usually wore as a cuff around his wrist, shaping it over and over again as they flew westwards.
And how is the water of the rain
And how is the air of the wind
And how are the arms of your mother
Notes: There was an idea going around Tumblr, mostly as pushback to the fanon that Lin and Tenzin broke up because she's infertile/didn't want kids, that they actually did have a child together, who is now grown and living elsewhere. Suffice to say, I rather like it. Title and lyrics from "Son" by The National.
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Also, this line is a beautiful thing: "Good. She likes being angry. She finds it energising."
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the ending was kickass:
"Lin will never forgive me if anything happens to you."
"Good. She likes being angry. She finds it energising."
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