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The wind ruffled Korra’s hair as she planted her feet on the ground and raised her hands in a slightly modified earthbending pose. Across from her, about 5 meters away, stood Lin Beifong, whose silver hair fluttered in the breeze as she rolled her shoulders and then snapped into a ready position.
“This is going to be epic!” Bolin whispered loudly and enthusiastically to Opal, who was seated beside him. “I can’t wait,” he continued, clasping his hands together excitedly.
“I’m still not so sure this is a good idea,” Tenzin murmured in a concerned voice as Lin stomped her foot down on the ground and then fanned it across the earth in front of her, taking a seismic reading of the courtyard.
“Are you kidding me? This is the best idea ever!” Meelo exclaimed, giving his father an incredulous look before he focused his eyes on Lin and Korra again, rubbing his hands together gleefully as he watched them circle each other.
Bolin nodded his head enthusiastically in agreement with Meelo. Tenzin frowned and sighed softly. Before he could say anything however, a loud whistle pierced the air, drawing the attention of everyone gathered in courtyard, including Lin and Korra.
“Go Lin!” Kya yelled a moment later, before whistling again and then clapping her hands supportively.
A blush spread across Lin’s cheeks as Kya cheered her on, and Korra’s head tilted to the side, her eyes finding Asami’s hopefully. Asami smiled at her warmly, and then she stood up and yelled, “Whoo! Korra!” before pumping her arm up into the air and clapping her hands as well, which brought a big dopey smile to Korra’s lips.
Kya looked over at Asami when the engineer started cheering, and with a mischievous little twinkle in her eyes, Kya rose to her feet and started cheering for Lin even louder than she had been before. This made Lin groan and Korra laugh, while Asami met Kya’s eyes in playful challenge and stepped up her efforts cheering for Korra until she and Kya were practically just screaming in each other’s faces.
“Kya really,” Tenzin sighed eventually, interrupting the face-off between Kya and Asami when they paused to breathe. “You’re an adult.”
“Oh, am I?” Kya asked archly before sticking her tongue out at him and blowing a raspberry, a move which drew snorts and giggles from all of the people surrounding them except for Tenzin who frowned in disapproval.
“In age at least,” Tenzin muttered, glowering down at his lap.
“Age is just a number Dad,” Jinora observed wisely from spot on the steps between her father and Kai. “And no matter what that number is, some people like Aunt Kya will always be young at heart.”
Tenzin’s expression softened as he gazed down at his eldest child, and he placed a hand on Jinora’s shoulder and squeezed it affectionately. Jinora smiled at him, and they shared a quiet moment before Tenzin turned to Kya and whispered, “You know that means you’re immature, right? And old,” and Kya reached out and stuck her finger in his ear, laughing when an offended look came over his features and he tried to slap her hand away.
“If it’s not too much trouble,” Lin called out in exasperation, staring at the assembled crowd with a pissy look on her face, “Could you all quiet the flameo down so that we can get on with this?!”
“It wasn’t me this time,” Bolin whispered happily, glad to have Lin’s angry voice directed at people who weren’t him. “Bolin gets to stay.”
Opal smiled at him and kissed his cheek.
“Sorry, babe,” Kya called out apologetically.
“Babe?” Korra questioned, smiling teasingly over at Lin.
“You really want to start this Boo Boo Bear?” Lin asked, using the pet name she had heard Asami call Korra one time she’d had the misfortune of walking past them as they nuzzled noses like furless polar bear dog pups.
“Yeah, I wanna start this,” Korra exclaimed, blushing from Lin’s use of Asami’s special name for her even as she lifted her arms determinedly into combat position. “Let’s bend!”
“Finally,” Lin replied, and then before their audience could distract them again, Lin and Korra lifted boulders into the air and began to fight.
For the next fifteen minutes the crowd gathered around the air temple’s courtyard steps watched in awe as Lin and Korra battled it out, bending earth and metal with ferocious skill. Ducking and weaving, leaping over and dodging attacks that they could not deflect, before they launched into fresh attacks.
When it was over, Korra held a huge boulder centimeters away from Lin’s face, while Korra’s torso was encircled by a sheet of metal that was curled so tightly around her she was having trouble breathing properly. The air around them and throughout the whole courtyard was foggy with dust from all of the rocks Korra and Lin had decimated during their fight, and even Tenzin’s mouth was hanging open in awe.
“Draw?” Korra wheezed out to Lin.
Korra could not free herself without attempting to drop the massive boulder on Lin, and Lin could not escape from the position she was in without tightening the metal corset she had trapped Korra in hard enough to incapacitate the girl by cracking her ribs.
“Draw,” Lin grunted.
“I have never been happier to have eyeballs,” Meelo declared dreamily, gazing at Lin and Korra as if they were the most wondrous creatures in existence. “What a time to be alive!”
“Somebody should write a ballad about this,” Ikki enthused as Lin rolled out from under the boulder, allowing Korra to set it carefully back on the ground. “Aunt Kya, you should, no … ooh, ooh, we should write one together!” she continued excitedly, and Kya nodded distractedly and breathed out, “Sounds…mmhmm, okay…yes,” as she continued to gaze at Lin lustily, only barely aware of what Ikki was actually saying to her.
“You’re drooling,” Tenzin teased as Lin freed Korra from the metal she had encased her in.
“You’re not funny,” Kya muttered back at him before reaching out with her booted foot to shove him in the back.
“It wasn’t a joke,” Tenzin mumbled petulantly, looking over his shoulder to shoot Kya a dirty look. “Naga leaves smaller puddles behind.”
Kya’s eyes narrowed at him as a look of great affront came over her features, and she lifted her booted foot to kick Tenzin again, but before she could he lifted his hand and sent a small gust of wind at her, knocking her off balance enough that she had to abandon her attack on him to stop herself from falling off of step she was seated on.
“You airbent at me,” Lin said grumpily as she and Korra made their way over to their friends.
“It just happened,” Korra said defensively. “That metal spike you threw got really close to my head,” she continued, glaring at Lin pointedly.
“You deflected it,” Lin muttered, shrugging her shoulders.
“Yeah,” Korra exclaimed. “With airbending!”
“Wow you guys, that was amazing,” Bolin enthused, bounding over to them like an over-excited deer dog. “It was so intense. I got so scared at the end there when Lin was all,” Bolin continued, moving his hands around animatedly, “and then Korra was like BLAM! BOOM! KAPOW!” he went on, waving his hands some more. “And…” Bolin paused as he glanced around him and noticed that everyone was staring at him. “Well, you know. You were there, so I’ll just … Bolin out,” he whispered, holding up his hands in a sign of peace before he slunk back over to Opal’s side.
Once the path to Lin and Korra was clear again, Asami and Kya made their way over to their women. When they reached them, Asami wrapped her arms around Korra and drew her into a tight hug as she proudly whispered “You were amazing,” into her ear, while Kya slipped her hand into her more reserved partner’s and then leaned over, pressing a sweet kiss to Lin’s cheek before breathing out, “You looked good out there, Chief.”
The group milled around outside for a short while longer, talking about Lin and Korra’s exuberant sparring match, and then they migrated inside of the temple for dinner which began noisily and hectically, as it always did on Air Temple Island. Once everyone was seated and their bowls and tea cups were full however, things finally began to settle down – though they didn’t quiet down much.
With the meal underway, Pema inquired about the match she had missed, and Lin suppressed a sigh as Bolin, Meelo, Ikki, and Kya began to enthusiastically discuss the bout, often over top of each other.
“I’ve never even seen some of the earthbending moves Korra was using!” Bolin was saying, taking a moment to look over at Korra with hearts in his eyes before he turned to face Pema again. “It was like … warther-bending. She made a dirt whip!”
“That was really cool,” Asami whispered into Korra’s ear and Meelo stood up and backed away from the table so that he could move his arms around in an approximation of how Korra’s arms had moved when whips composed of rock and dust had extended from the ends of them, allowing her to attack Lin with the what were essentially twenty foot long arms. “All that practicing definitely paid off.”
Korra smiled at Asami’s words, and blushed as she angled her face towards the engineer. “I did alright I guess,” Korra murmured a little bashfully. “Considering I had to use airbending at one point,” she sighed.
“You’ve been able to bend more than one element since you were three,” Asami breathed softly into Korra’s ear. “It’s your natural instinct to switch between elements,” she continued, taking Korra’s hand into her own under the table. “You were up against one of the best earthbender’s in the world, and you were basically fighting with one of your arms tied behind your back. You were incredible,” Asami went on, her voice taking on an intimately rough quality that caused Korra’s body warm. “And hotter than a mecha torch,” Asami added naughtily. “So rest up, because you’re in for a very active night,” Asami promised, and Korra could not stop herself from smiling widely.
Once Meelo had finished with his shenanigans and sat back down, Lin took the opportunity that presented itself during a rare moment of relative silence at the table to address Korra.
“It was an impressive move, Kid,” Lin acknowledged, drawing Korra’s eyes over to her. “You’ll have to show me how you did it one day,” she continued, and Korra’s eyes widened in delight as happiness tugged her lips up into a smile so large it looked almost painful.
“Anytime, Chief. Just say the word,” Korra replied enthusiastically, honoured by the fact that Lin had not only complimented her but actually thought that she could learn something from her as well.
“Have you managed to adapt any other waterbending techniques to earthbending, or vice versa?” Kya asked curiously, interested simply because it was an interesting topic, but also because the possibility that Korra might have something to teach her as well was an exciting one.
Korra turned to Kya and started to nod her head enthusiastically.
“The wave,” Korra breathed out as she rested her elbows on the table and leaned towards Kya. “Sand waves to be exact! And sand gimbals. And sand boxing. Ooh and sand compression! Bending water and bending sand are really similar. I learned a lot when Asami and I went to the beach a couple weeks ago,” Korra continued, grinning over at Asami who did not look nearly as thrilled by the memory as Korra.
“You practiced on your girlfriend?” Opal asked, able to clearly read the expression on Asami’s face.
“She said I could,” Korra exclaimed, defending herself. “She wanted to help. We train together all the time,” Korra continued, looking around the table for support only to find shaking heads. “I helped bend the sand out of her hair afterwards,” Korra murmured, looking down into the empty bowl in front of her.
“It took me an hour to comb out the tangles her ‘help’ left behind,” Asami related causing some snickers to erupt from around the table.
“Little Missy Mayhem strikes again,” Kya breathed out teasingly.
“Hey!” Korra exclaimed indignantly. “Don’t bring that up. Water Tribe are supposed to stick together,” she complained making Kya laugh. “It’s not funny,” Korra whined. “I was little, I didn’t know any better!” she continued, which only succeeded in making Kya chuckle more.
“Ooh, embarrassing ‘little Korra’ stories! Those are my favourite type of little Korra stories. You have to tell us all about it!” Bolin said, turning to Kya with interest.
“Traitor,” Korra muttered, glaring at Bolin before she turned to Asami for help.
“Don’t look at me. I want to hear the story too,” Asami replied, and while Korra was not surprised by Asami’s response (Asami had delighted in listening to the stories Senna had to tell about her during their trip to the South Pole), she did look at Asami with betrayed eyes before she sighed deeply and crossed her arms over her chest, grouchily accepting her fate.
“The year was 158AG,” Kya began dramatically, “It was summer, and the market was crowded as people shopped for the New Moon festival. Senna and Tonraq were among the crowd, along with their young daughter, Korra … though after that day and the chaos that ensued, Korra would come to be known to most residents of the South Pole by another name, Little Missy Mayhem.”
Everyone seated around the table, even Tenzin, leaned forward with interest, eager to hear more.
“I can’t say that many stories begin with the phrase, ‘It all started with the camel yaks’, but this story does,” Kya continued. “A herd of camel yaks was penned near city hall. They were going to be used a few days later in a show for the festival. Now, as it happened, on that particular day, Korra and her parents were walking the streets near the camel pen, probably on the way to Oki’s for some fried squid. It’s the best joint in the world for it, trust me,” Kya continued a little dreamily, remembering all of the extremely satisfying meals she’d had there.
“Now, camel yaks are incredibly cute, but they’re also incredibly cranky. Some people find that combination charming,” Kya continued glancing at Lin, earning herself a glare from the police chief but also a few chuckles from around the table, “but little Korra did not. As the story goes, Korra tried to pet the camels, but the animals were not as excited by this endeavor as Korra herself was. Korra was not deterred by their aloofness however, and continued to attempt bonding with the camels until finally one of the harassed beasts…”
“I wasn’t harassing them,” Korra interjected in a wounded tone of voice. “They were fluffy and cute and I wanted them to know that I loved them,” she continued, defending her toddler actions.
Asami reached out and took her hand and squeezed it supportively, though she continued to listen to Kya with interest.
“Camel yaks, sadly are not as intelligent as people, and they did not recognize the little one’s efforts for the loving gestures they were,” Kya continued, which seemed to mollify Korra a bit. “A few of them started to spit at Korra, and hurt and enraged by this indecorous treatment, the little Avatar decided to express her displeasure to the camels … with fire.”
Bolin gasped, Jinora and Ikki turned to look at Korra aghast, Meelo nodded as if everything was adding up perfectly so far, and beside Kya, Lin smirked.
“Flames erupted from Korra’s little fists and the camels became afraid. They started pushing against the ice fence that contained them and were creating quite a racquet. Witness’s say that Tonraq rushed forward and quickly picked up his daughter to carry her away from the panicking animals. However, before he could successfully remove her, Korra managed to release a particularly strong and hot ball of fire which pushed the camels past their limits and they broke through the fence and took off into the crowded city streets, overturning stalls, nearly trampling people, and eating everything they could get their mouths on, including articles of clothing. An alert was issued shortly after the escape, and everyone had to go hide in their homes until the camels could be rounded up and re-penned. Little Miss Mayhem had struck for the first time!”
Kya’s use of the phrase ‘first time’ didn’t go unnoticed by anyone at the table, and soon the youngest people in the room were clamouring for their aunt to tell them about the other acts of destruction little Korra had unleashed on Harbour City.
By the time dessert was served, Kya had told them all about the time Korra had melted a massive snow fort some teenagers had made in the park after they wouldn’t let her play with them, and how Korra and a young Naga had managed to anger a flock of otter penguins to the point that the penguins followed them back to town and proceeded to chase kids and adults around until the city guard managed to lure them back out to the wilds with fish, and a few other tales which made it very clear that Korra had more than earned the nickname Little Missy Mayhem.
“Oh to have the metabolism of a twenty year old again,” Lin murmured to Kya as Korra accepted another piece of cake from Asami and began to tuck into it as enthusiastically as she had the eaten the first piece – and also the three helpings of dinner she’d packed away earlier.
Beside her Kya chuckled softly, and then leaned closer to Lin to whisper, “You still have the body of one … not to mention the stamina,” which made Lin’s cheeks flush, as a small but proud little smile tugged up the corners of her lips.
Kya’s hand settled warmly on the small of Lin’s back, and Lin leaned into the gentle touch and exhaled softly, contently, as Kya’s thumb rubbed soothingly against her back over the thin material of her tank top.
“If you keep touching me like that, you’re going to get a display of my stamina tonight,” Lin whispered to Kya as she struggled to keep her eyes from closing in pleasure as the waterbender continued to gently stroke her back.
“Promise?” Kya murmured back playfully, blue eyes shining with love and a considerable amount of desire as they met Lin’s.
“I give you my word as a woman, and an officer of the law,” Lin murmured solemnly, holding Kya’s eyes seriously until Kya smiled and then started to laugh, at which point Lin allowed a smile to pull up the corners of her lips as well.
“You’re adorable,” Kya breathed out, leaning into Lin so that their foreheads were intimately pressed together.
“Lies,” Lin replied softly. “Say it again and I’ll arrest you,” she threatened teasingly.
“That’s not much of a deterrent. You know how I love it when you put me in cuffs,” Kya breathed out huskily, making Lin’s fair skin flush red even as her eyes held Kya’s intently, as if she was fighting with everything she had not to cuff Kya to the table and have her for dessert.
Before Lin could respond to Kya’s flirtatious words however, the sound of Korra clearing his throat loudly and insistently filtered into the private little world Lin and Kya had drifted into, and reluctantly both Kya and Lin turned to look at Korra.
“You two are worse than teenagers,” Korra observed once she had Lin and Kya’s attention, her words earning a dark glare from Lin and a smile from Kya. “We were just talking about going for a night swim,” she continued. “Are you in?”
“Definitely,” Kya replied enthusiastically as Lin scoffed and then proceed to glare at Korra like she was crazy. “Oh come on,” Kya said looking over at Lin. “It’ll be fun.”
Lin turned her incredulous gaze towards Kya and crossed her arms, her body language clearly conveying how closed off to the idea she was. Freezing her ass off in the bay while Korra and her friends and Tenzin’s children splashed water on her in the darkness did not strike Lin as being anywhere near the vicinity of fun.
“Then it’s decided,” Tenzin said quickly, before anyone else could try and convince Lin that a night swim was a good idea. “Lin can help me clean up while the rest of you go for your swim.” Considering the large group that had been present for dinner, he hadn’t been looking forward to doing the dishes on his own.
“Now wait just a minute,” Lin began, but her indignant objection was drowned out by the sound of excited voices talking about what games they could play as the group gathered around the table stood up and started to move towards the doors that led to the Air Temple’s living quarters so that they could change into their swim wear.
“Have fun with Tenzin,” Kya whispered into Lin’s ear, “Try not to kill each other,” she continued laughing lightly before she pressed a kiss against Lin’s cheek and then rose to her feet as well.
“Aunt Kya!” Ikki said excitedly, her little hands tugging on Kya’s dress as they made their way towards the girl’s dormitory. “Will you do the water canon for us?”
Jinora clasped her hands together and looked at Kya hopefully, while Korra also turned towards her with anticipation shining in her eyes. Usually when she went swimming with her friends she had to be the one to make the water cannon, but with Kya around she might actually get to participate in the fun instead of being the one to facilitate it.
“Aww,” Kya cooed as she looked around at their young, eager faces. “How could I say no to these faces? It would be an honour to hurl you all tens of feet into the air,” she continued, laughing a moment later when Ikki and Jinora wrapped their arms around her waist as Korra high-fived Bolin.
The noise in the dining room faded quickly after that as everyone but Tenzin and Lin exited, and when they were left alone in silence, Tenzin turned to Lin and smiled at her.
“Wash or dry?” he asked.
Lin sighed deeply and then glared at him. “Why even bother asking. You know you want to dry, Air-Boy.”
“You have to admit, I'm very efficient,” Tenzin replied.
Lin was quiet for a moment, and then looking Tenzin dead in the eyes, she breathed out, “No I don’t,” before standing up and heading towards the kitchen. “We’ll both wash,” Lin continued decisively as she entered the temple’s large kitchen, “and then you can blow all the wind you want.”
Behind her, Tenzin sputtered indignantly, and Lin’s lips curved up into an amused little smile. A lot of things might have changed in their lives over the years, but bugging Tenzin was still tons of fun.
The End