The Littlest Acolyte

thebestteacher:

“Well, I’ve never asked that before,” Tenzin crossed his arms over his chest. His ears tinted a bit, however he did smile at Pema’s answer. “I just wanted to be sure that was what you wanted, love.”

He kissed her gently, then again and again. Chuckling at himself, Tenzin couldn’t help it. He was more than happy.

Pema kissed him back, giggling at his deep laugh. Honestly, did he really expect her to say no?

“I swear by the Spirits, Tenzin. Have you seen my letters? They’ve got Pema Gyatso written all over them,” Pema laughed as she turned pink and uncrossed his arms, replacing them with her own. “It’s not like you were asking me to-“

She broke off, the slight pink blush flaming into bright red, and she rolled her eyes at herself.

thebestteacher:

Tenzin pulled their hands back and flattened hers against his chest, his over hers securely. He chewed the inside of his cheek a tad nervously. “Well,” the airbender clicked his tongue.

“I was wondering… I’ve meditated on this the past couple of days, and I wanted to ask you, if… Not now, perhaps soon, but - if you would want to - would like me to,” Tenzin gestured about with his other hand, “court you.”

Pema couldn’t help but let a loud laugh escape her lips as Tenzin stuttered through his question and pushed against his chest playfully. “So much trouble for one little question, Tenzin!”

She smiled, controlling her giggles, and she leaned forward to press a soft kiss to both of his cheeks. “You didn’t even have to ask. I would love that, dear.”

thebestteacher:

Tenzin smiled into the kiss before they parted. His thumb brushed along Pema’s  cheek and he pecked her back. He refrained himself from pulling her back for another long kiss as she caught her breath. He had to remind himself that things were a tad new for Pema, or so he thought.

Either way, he’d teach her.

“I feel the same way, Pema,” he brushed her hair behind her ear and cleared his throat. His fingers linked with hers. “Speaking of which… I… well, I have something to ask you.”

Pema felt burning heat following the touch of Tenzin’s fingers and looked away shyly. That kiss was awfully… forward of her, and she had never done such a thing before. Of course, there had been that one young Acolyte who worked on the ferry, but they had never gone anywhere past sickeningly sweet puppy-love.

She felt Tenzin’s fingers locking around hers and smiled, pulling them up to her lips and kissing them. “Oh, really? And what is it?”

thebestteacher:

“I am peaceful. All of those ideas are peaceful, Pema,” he replied as a matter of factually. “I would simply put him on a boat. I would simply take him by the arm and push him out the door. I never said anything about actually hurting Tarrlok.”

Tenzin chuckled as she turned around. He expected her to be blushing and - “Never is a long time, Pema,” he managed to point out before she grabbed onto his robes. “But I -“

His hands dropped to his sides and he blinked as she kissed him back. When she pulled away, his brain took its moment’s rest to register.”Ah,” Tenzin uttered. He drew Pema in again, holding her face in his hands and locking his lips more deeply with hers.

“Oh!”

Pema barely got the single syllable out before their lips had connected once more. A shocked moment passed before she let go of his robes, her body was flush against his and her hands sliding up his chest to rest on his shoulders as she responded to the kiss lustfully.

Leaning back with a sharp intake of breath, she smiled and pressed a quick kiss to his lips. “It’s not long at all when I’m with you.”

thebestteacher:

At the mention of Tarrlok, Tenzin groaned in irritation. The waterbender had been nothing but a nuisance. A nightmare by all definitions. “If I could, Pema,” Tenzin said, “if I could, then I would put him on the first ship back to the Nothern Water Tribe. I would kick him out of the building every morning.”

When he finished, he was red in the face and his teeth ground together. However, her hummed words had his tensed shoulders go slack. His feelings of frustration were replaced by happiness.

“Well, I…” Tenzin chuckled.

The air bender leaned over Pema’s shoulder tilted her face to his. He kissed her gently. “I love you too,” he said against her lips.

Pema giggled at his frustration, listening intently as he described the ways he would get rid of the young man. “Surely you wouldn’t do all of that to him. I thought you were supposed to be a peaceful Air Nomad, Tenzin.”

She gasped into the kiss as he finally, finally, said what she wanted to hear and turned around, straddling his lap and weaving her fingers into his robes. “Good. Because I’ll never stop loving you.”

Her lips pressed to his and she flicked her tongue out, catching his lower lip before pulling back with a sly smile.

thebestteacher:

Oh Spirits, her face. Tenzin cleared his throat.

“Have you ever known me to make decisions at a drop of the hat, Pema?” he tried to assure her. His hand ran gently along her back as her arms squeezed him. “I’m not going anywhere, I’m home now,” Tenzin told her with a confident nod.

Peering at the letter in her hands, Tenzin chuckled. It was a rather boring one about what he had been doing, his council meetings and such. It was one more written jokingly, when he had remembered Pema telling him she just sometimes wanted to know about his days.

“I had time to write and to think,” he shrugged lightly. Time being near homeless and sleeping in his office, that was. “And when I meditated, I simply kept coming back to you.”

“No…” Pema said, so quietly it was almost inaudible to her. She set her head on his shoulder and pressed herself closer to him as he rubbed her back. “You’re a thinker. It’s what you do.”

She made a face as she read a certain paragraph in his letter detailing one of the interns and looked up at him questioningly. “Is this… Tarrlok… Is he really this bad? You said he’s only eighteen, but he seems a lot…” Pema made an annoyed noise in her throat and shook her head.

I simply kept coming back to you.

A blush and a silly, happy grin spread on her face, and the girl hummed contentedly against Tenzin. “I love you.”

thebestteacher:

Tenzin held the letter out of Pema’s reach, trying not to laugh. When she finally gave up, he kissed her cheek. “I’ll put this one at the bottom of the pile, alright?” He offered, putting the letter down and sliding it under the pile of papers beside him.

Sensing the worry in Pema’s voice, the air bender shook his head. What happened between him and Lin had been a long time coming. Pema’s feelings for him and his for her were completely unrelated. Tenzin stopped shuffling papers about and just held her for a moment.

“Of course not,” he assured her. “Don’t ever think that, not for a moment. Nothing you did caused what happened, Pema.”

Pema leaned into his arms, listening quietly. She sighed softly and tightened her arms around him as he told her she wasn’t the reason for the break up and pursed her lips. “I just… I don’t want you to do anything… rash. I don’t want you to realize you’ve made a mistake in a week and…”

Leave.

Oh Spirits, she didn’t want him to leave. Lin was everything; she was beautiful, she was strong, she had grown up with him as childhood friends when he was actually a child as well. Tenzin must have known her like the back of his hand, and to leave her for Pema…

Giving a tight smile, Pema looked back to the letter in her hands and began to read. Some things he had written were menial, some were a bit more significant, and she raised a brow. “What even inspired you to write these? I told you it wasn’t important.”

thebestteacher:

Tenzin kissed the top of her head in return, his arm wrapping around her as she resettled herself. He couldn’t help doing either. The affection he felt for her was truly getting the best of him at that point. He chuckled.

“I agree,” he nodded. His brow arched at the next letter. The man read the title aloud, “Mrs. Tenzin Gyatso. Oh yes, dear, I respect it entirely.”

A pause came between them before Tenzin spoke again. “Well, it can’t quite hurt,” he sighed, rubbing a hand over his tired eyes. “I went back to my apartment in the city a few days ago. I did as Lin had told me to, I packed my things - however… she… There wasn’t anything…”

“I loved her once,” Tenzin had to admit, even to Pema. He looked off. “But things had changed. I had to let her go and… well, here we are now.”

“No!” Pema’s eyes widened and she reached for the letter. Finally after several useless minutes of trying, she fell back, covering her blushing face with her hand. “You. Saw. Nothing. Nothing. I was fourteen when I wrote that one!”

She sat back up at his exhausted tone, playfulness suddenly gone as he explained what happened between him and Lin. Listening carefully, a frown crossed her face and she pulled herself closer to Tenzin and leaned against him.

“I didn’t… I didn’t, um…” she struggled to collect her words as she tried to phrase her question so it wouldn’t bother him. “I’m not the reason that anything happened… that you didn’t want to happen, am I?”

thebestteacher:

Tenzin didn’t hesitate to kiss Pema back this time around. He held her face in his hands and pressed his lips firmly against hers in return, his eyes shutting. If someone had seen, they would had been concerned another time. However no one did and they were not.

“I promise it’s real,” he smiled as they parted, his arms wrapping around her again. If it was a dream, he’d be asleep as well and while the idea was lovely, Tenzin rather have things as they were at that moment.

Sitting down beside her and pulling her to sit up against him as she read, sigh escaped his lips. “Well, it’s not a very fun story,” he admitted.

He found his letters and began to read as well. “Ah,” hearts and his name were scrawled across the page, “now I knew I was forgetting to do something when writing mine.”

Pema pulled the letter from the envelope, eyes scanning Tenzin’s spidery calligraphy as it conveyed to her all the things she wanted to hear. She smiled as she saw “dear” and “love” at the top and bottom of the page and shifted to sit on her knees. Leaning up, she pressed a kiss to his cheek and smiled, “See? You write wonderful letters, dear.”

“Well, it’s the best reality,” the girl sighed happily, throwing her legs over Tenzin’s as she resettled herself.

She wrapped her free arm around him and reached for the next letter as she spoke. “You don’t have to tell me if you wouldn’t like to. I’d understand.”

Scowling, she unclipped her pen from her notebook and drew a heart and scrawled her name on Tenzin’s letter to her. “And don’t make fun of my love-art. It’s a serious pasttime, Tenzin, and I expect you to respect my talents.”

thebestteacher:

Tenzin shrugged, lightly. “I will believe it when I have evidence, Pema. So I must insist you join me in meditation later,” he said firmly, though smiling.

Seeing everything come together for Pema made him laugh lightly. She had been on his mind the last week, near constantly. Not as a large portion of his thoughts, but as a comfort and safe place, if it made any sense at all. It seemed she had been thinking about him too.

“I didn’t what?” Tenzin teased her as she came at him. Her arms looped around him and he returned the embrace, holding her tightly to him. “Well, it’s a long story, Pema. But I’ll be glad to share it with you. We have all the time we need.”

Pulling back slightly, he reached into his pocket and held up a bundle of envelopes. “These are for you also,” sheepishly, the man smiled, “I wrote them last night, the ink may be smudged.”

“I’d love to, Tenzin… So long as you don’t try to punish me for interrupting you,” Pema replied, rolling her eyes. “But heavens know I need the meditation.”

She smiled as he laughed and leaned back to press a kiss to his lips. He was with her at last. He was really, physically there to stay. Pulling back to end the kiss, she grinned up at him and embraced him once more.

“You didn’t really come back to me,” she said, but her voice was muffled by his shoulder. “This is a dream. I must have fallen asleep during meditation, and it all has to be a really amazing dream.”

“I’d really like to hear it,” Pema answered, taking the letters and sitting back down on the floor of the pavilion as she slit open the first envelope on the stack and began reading. She nodded to her books from class earlier that day. “Your letters should be shuffled around in those.” 

thebestteacher:

The days had been long and confusing for Tenzin. His eyes were tired from no sleep, his throat strained from yelling and his arms ached from the bending he had to do. However, the man remained standing throughout the ferry ride to the island.

“Home at last, Master Tenzin,” one of the Acolytes who he had run into said as the air bender stepped off the boat.

Tenzin nodded as  he picked up the small bag of his belongings over his shoulder and began walking up the many steps. A weight seemed to lift off his chest with every foot forward he took. Parting hadn’t been an easy thing to do, but letting go was a necessary thing, he decided. “It’s all for the best,” he told himself.

Alone in the meditation pavilion, he could make out a single person. Tenzin dropped his bag and clasped his hands behind his back. A smile flitted about his face as he stepped closer. “I thought you said you were getting better at meditating.”

The girl groaned as the teasing words came at her, “I have gotten better at—”

“T-Tenzin!” Pema gasped as she registered the voice, shooting up from the ground and whirling about to find him inches from her. Her mouth dropped open and she glanced around, wondering what he was doing on the island so soon. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you…”

She trailed off, catching sight of his bag and unable to suppress a small, shocked smile. “You didn’t… Tenzin…”

Pema watched him carefully for several long, silent seconds before throwing herself at him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders tightly and burying her face in his neck. “Oh my Spirits, Tenzin, why?”

thebestteacher:

“Home, right,” Tenzin folded his hands under his chin and didn’t seem like he was going to move anytime soon. He watched Pema collect her things and stand, moving toward the door. A weight fell on his chest as he nodded. “Thank you, Pema.”

Even when she had gone, he remained, staring thoughtfully out the window to Republic City. The day’s events played over and over in the back of his mind, overlapped by what his father had told him earlier.

“You aren’t losing her, you’re setting her free.”

The next time Tenzin returned, it would be Tenzin who felt himself free.

[Several days later…]

Pema sat in the meditation pavilion, unable to clear her thoughts and actually relax enough to meditate. Katara had been so… vague when she spoke to her, as though the older woman knew something she didn’t. It had hardly been helpful when she told Pema that everything would simply work out for the best in the end.

“Ugh, Katara!” the girl groaned, flopping onto her back on the wooden floor. “Why can’t you just tell me what you know?”

She pulled a face as the setting sun glared into her eyes, and threw a lazy hand over her face to shield herself from the harsh light. She sighed sadly in the darkness behind her eyelids; Tenzin was never coming back to her. She’d gotten one happy hour with him, and she supposed that would have to last her a lifetime.

thebestteacher:

“How’s this? ‘Dear Pema, today I woke up, made my side of the bed, meditated - I’m sure you’ve been doing the same. After I meditated, I showered and had breakfast. Fought with Li -‘” Tenzin bit off the end of his joke with a sharp exhale. He rubbed his temples and shook his head.

The little bubble that he had been slowly waned, reality and what was happening began to creep back in. Lin, duty, council, Lin, responsibilities. It all quietly slipped to the front of his mind.

Placing the last letter down, Tenzin leaned back in the chair. His arms stayed loosely about Pema, his eyes hooded and his face became marred with a frown. “I, um,” he sighed, cradling his cheek in his hand, “I’m sorry, Pema. What was that?”

“Nothing, it was nothing,” Pema stood quickly, stacking the letters on top of each other. Disappointment shot through her and she sighed, setting down the letters and turning around. “I think I have some chores to do in the dormitory. You should probably go home. It’s almost dinner time.”

Home to the city. Home to Lin. Home, away from her. The hurt settled in her heart and she picked up her books, looking back to Tenzin to catch his dissatisfied expression.

“I’ll write you…” Pema murmured, inching her way to the door. “You know, about Aang. I’ll keep you updated on his health, okay?”

thebestteacher:

Tenzin glanced down at Pema with a slight smile. He rested his head against hers and hummed. “Well, ‘Dear love,’” he teased, stroking his beard, “that’s not a terrible way to start. But what to say… You know, official papers are different because they’re more a relay of information.”

“True, they both have a beginning, middle and end,” he picked up another letter and folded the last neatly. Tenzin chuckled lightly, seeing the hearts drawn in the margins of the paper. It was an incredibly Pema trait. “But what you say matters most,” the air bender smiled at her.

Pausing his reading, Tenzin regarded her with a soft look. “Compelled, no. Perhaps I’m simply feeling… sentimental,” he laughed lightly.

Dear love, Pema thought as her face heated up with a blush and she smiled softly as she played with the edge of Tenzin’s outer robe. Dear love. I like it.

He picked up another letter and she hid her face sheepishly as she saw some of the hearts in the margins. She thanked the Spirits that she had remembered to hide the one  that was nothing but hearts filled with Mrs. Pema Gyatso in the space between the cushion and the chair. “Well, you could always relay information to me. How your day was, what you did, any thoughts you’d like to share. Nothing important. Just… you.”

“Sentimental?” Her smile grew wider and she stopped playing with his robe, instead looking up to meet his eyes as he spoke. “And why would this sentimentality make you want to write letters to me?”

thebestteacher:

“That’s completely different, Pema,” Tenzin argued. He squinted at the next letter before leaning around her and pulling the light closer to the chair. Spirits, he sighed, he was getting old. “These are completely a different situation.”

He reached for the apple again as he flipped the letter to the other side. The man frowned again when he realized there was virtually nothing for him left. Grumbling, he took a last bite before setting it on the table beside them.

“Yes, well,” Tenzin muttered, his eyes fell in more ink that had run, undoubtedly due to tears. His arm tightened around her shoulders. “Perhaps I do,” he conceded quietly.

“Yes, well, I know you know how to write a letter. Now you have to start it with ‘dear’ and end with ‘love’ since it’s not going to the Fire Lord this time,” Pema explained and smiled as he set down the apple core with no shortage of the expected annoyance.

She flipped through her book, coming to her marked page and continuing to read the drama between the two main characters as they tried to reconcile their relationship. It hit a bit too close to home and she set the book aside, leaning into Tenzin as he tightened his grip on her.

“Don’t feel compelled to write just because I did, Tenzin. They’re just silly little love letters,” she whispered into his robe in an attempt not to interrupt his reading as she scanned the letter, realizing that it was one of the sadder ones.

thebestteacher:

Tenzin read through the letter, scowling at her again when she took the apple once more. He really needed to get use to this sharing idea. Books, umbrellas, even clothes were acceptable to him in the past. His apples however, those were sacred until now.

He softened at the comment regarding her missing him. At least she had that. Whenever he had missed her, he had just stopped working and looked longingly toward the island. Not for very long, but he would.

“Oh do I?” Tenzin eyed her, finishing the letter, folding it and reaching for the next one.

The air bender chuckled. “I’m not sure you’d want me to,” he said lightly, “I’m not very good with writing letters, Pema,” he told her with another shake of his head and bite of the apple.

Pema giggled at his scowl and bit the apple mockingly. She handed him the letter as he reached for it, slightly reluctant to hand it over. Spirits, he must think she was some kind of obsessive stalker or something.

“And yes, you do,” she mumbled, playing with her hair under his gaze. “And I know for a fact that as a councilman you send out diplomatic letters like they’re candy, so don’t play that game with me.”

Reaching for a book to occupy her, she took back the apple, taking a huge bite and trying not to laugh around it as she offered the nearly finished fruit to Tenzin. “You owe me, Master Tenzin.”

thebestteacher:

“What? It does not,” Tenzin squinted at the unbitten skin of the half eaten apple. Then he realized she was joking and he scowled. Pema had turned his game against him and now he had no letter and no apple.

When she offer the olive branch, the air bender sighed. “Fine,” he agreed reluctantly. The man took the apple via a large bite. Tenzin held it in his mouth as he picked Pema up and settle into the chair himself. She sat half in his lap and half in the small space he didn’t take up on the cushion.

Once that was done, he smoothed the creases out of the letter and scanned over it briefly before taking another bite out of the apple.

“Less, ‘I miss yous’ in this one,” Tenzin observed before actually buckling down and reading the letter.

“It totally does. You’re just blind to that fact,” Pema teased. He took the apple with his mouth, and she watched with wide eyes as he picked her up, only to be resettled in his lap.

She wriggled about to get comfortable in the spot between Tenzin and the arm of the chair and draped her legs over his with a smile. She plucked the apple from his hands to take a small bite and shrugged at his observation.

“I guess you were in the newspaper or something that day,” she mentioned lightly, thoughtfully tapping her foot in the air. “Or maybe I saw you somewhere in the city. I dunno, I always missed you less when I saw you.”

She pulled the other letters to her, organizing them by the date on the envelope and hiding some in the crack between the cushion and the chair every so often. “You’re going to have to do a lot of writing to repay me for these.”

thebestteacher:

Tenzin held the letter out of Pema’s reach as he stepped back lightly. He chuckled, delighted in the new game. “But it has my name on it, Pema, I think it’s mine,” he replied wickedly, taking another bite of his apple.

His game came to a halt as she got out of her chair. He held the letter behind his back and her arms wound around his torso. The problem wasn’t there however, she gave him a smirk. His brow arched and she reached up to kiss his cheek - stealing his apple.

“That - that’s my apple,” Tenzin blinked in shock. No one came between Tenzin and his apples. Not even his mother could share one with him. “Pema.”

Sighing he looked from the letter to the back of her chair. Contemplating a second or two more, the air bender knelt at her side and looked at her apologetically. “I’m sorry,” Tenzin sighed again, sliding the envelope into her hands.

Pema giggled at his reaction to her theft, taking a big bite out of the side of the apple and grinning up at him. Swallowing, she licked her lips and shook her head. “But it has my name on it. I think it’s mine.” 

He knelt next to her and slid the envelope into her hand with the most pathetic expression on his face, and Pema shook her head, mocking him more. “Oh, no. It’s yours. Your name, my name, remember?”

“…But I think I could make an exception, this one time,” she said thoughtfully, assuming he would never let her have another bite of his apple. “Share the apple and you get to read the rest of the letters, okay?”

Quickly, before he could make any plans, she took one more bite, holding the apple out to him as a sign of peace. “Deal?”