Sailing the Shipping Seas

Content to let them cuddle a little longer, he stepped into the other room to find the travel bags, hoping to find his swimwear in the dark. The plan had been to head to the beach early to enjoy the quiet before most of the other vacationers descended with their children, pets, and alcoholic beverages in tow.

Much as he loved his children, having a day without them was something he had been looking forward to for two weeks.

Pema had arrived back in their chambers one evening just as he was about to bring Lin to a climax. Rather than strip and join them, Pema had vanished into the washroom and returned in her normal bedclothes. She had given his wet face a gentle, not invigorating, kiss. She then gave Lin a similarly soft kiss on her scars, rolled over, and would not respond to them. They had cleaned up, returned to bed, and braced her between themselves.

The next morning, she asked for a vacation. Just one nice day away from everything.

It had taken two weeks to make it happen, and even then, they could only get as far as Zigan City.

The weather on their route had been uncooperative, costing them several hours while Lin groused about what use an airbender even was, if he couldn’t divert an entire storm system.

Tenzin diplomatically had not pointed out that even his parents, working together, would not dare to interfere in a natural process unless human lives were at risk.

She had continued to grumble, wrapping herself in several more blankets than usual. Pema looked rather put out at being left by herself, so came and joined him to ride on Oogi’s head.

Unfortunately, the nap seemed not to help Lin’s mood. Once they finally arrived, she growled at everyone on the hotel’s staff, sounding more like her old self than they had heard in the past year.

The fact that they had to settle for paying for adjoining rooms instead of one room with only one bed had been the final irritation before they adjourned to the rooms and made their own arrangements.

On the way up, Lin had let out a sneeze that shook the elevator and made the operator hand him a card with the contact information for a healer around the corner.

It had taken them an hour to arrange the rooms to their liking. The smaller bed in the single room was stripped of its blankets, and then served as a platform for the travelling case they shared. Rotating through the shared bathroom down the hallway had extended the time needed to finally lay down together.

They were all asleep within minutes.

Tenzin was vaguely aware of Lin getting up more than once in the night, but she just crawled back into bed, curled into herself, and ignored them.

He pulled the light robe around his shoulders, giving passing thought to how uncomfortable his clothes were. Before Bumi’s jokes about having forgotten what ‘Vacation Tenzin’ was like could overwhelm him, he opened the balcony doors and stepped out into the cool morning.

This far north, it was still chilly and dark, though he could see the beginnings of dawn creeping westward. With an inward smile, he settled on the edge of the patio to meditate.

The scrape of the doors behind him alerted him that he was no longer alone. Real sunshine was beginning to illuminate the shoreline below them. A deep inhale suggested to him that…

“Awake already on vacation, Tenzin?” Pema asked.

He allowed himself a small smirk. “My bladder does not understand ‘vacation.’”

She chuckled and gave him a playful brush with her hand. “Old man.”

“Be glad Lin and I are around to show you what you can expect when you get to be our age.”

Her face stilled.

His heart dropped. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

She pursed her lips and walked a little to one side to get a better look at the sunrise, hidden behind a bank of clouds.

“Clouds in the sunrise. At least we shouldn’t see rain today, I suppose. We should let Lin sleep. She sounded terrible all night.”

Tenzin blinked.

“Are those my swim trunks?”

Pema turned to look at him over her shoulder.

“I couldn’t find mine before I gave up.” He frowned when her eyes combed him up and down. When she met his eyes again, there was an odd amusement in her face. “Lin’s trunks look quite fetching on you, though.”

She smirked, turned away, and climbed down the stairs toward the beach.

He looked down and shook his head. Hopefully, Lin would wake up in a good enough mood to laugh about it.

She hadn’t been ‘awake’ more than about thirty minutes before he began having flashbacks to the illness she had about a week before her final examinations at the academy. Once again, she proved to have three states: asleep, awake and angry, or awake and pathetic.

To keep Pema from having to shoulder the burden of care, he shooed her down to the hotel’s restaurant to have whatever she liked. He swore to her that he would be joining her, and they could bring something back for Lin.

So, of course, Lin woke up angry not ten minutes later. She insisted on getting a hot shower, then flailed around in the extra room, exiting in a mix of Pema’s wrappings, his trousers, and her own sleeveless shirt.

Another airbender sneeze, and she vanished out into the hallway, storming down the stairs.

By the time he’d caught up to her in the dining room, she and Pema were arguing with one of the kitchen staff.

He pardoned himself for being grateful that they were not arguing with each other.

The tug at his elbow was rather insistent.

“Master Tenzin, please remove your wife and friend. They have been trying to have the chef removed. And your friend appears to be too ill to be in public. We have already called a healer over to examine her, if you’ll please take her back to her room.”

The chef was so grateful for him to take Lin away that he pressed a box of apple dumplings into his hands with a relieved “Happy Kyoshi Day.”

Back upstairs, he found the two of them sitting back to back, holding each other’s hands.

They never did explain what had happened in the dining room.

He shrugged, took a dumpling, and retreated to the balcony.