Author's Note:

I had originally uploaded a story using the same title to depict a version in which it talked about what I thought happened before Baatar and Kuvira left Zaofu to stabilize the Earth Kingdom. The only problem was I didn't really get into the story, to which I decided to eradicate it and start anew. When I was on Tumblr, I found this photoshop of Kuvira and Baatar as a police chief and detective (photocreds to Franny1234). That then sparked this story, which I'm sure has been done before but whatever. I'm doing it for the helluvit. I also rated this 'T' just because there's some profanity in it. I tried to limit it (I probably would have it in every other sentence but I don't enjoy reading it that much in stories so I restrained myself). Also, I inserted a few OC's in here, which I'll list at the end of this chapter so you can get a better feel of who is who. Aight, well, that's the end of my blubbering. Hope you enjoy the story :)

Kuvira stared blankly at the wall opposite of her. Her fingers picked at the skin around the nails, and officers and detectives rushed by her, each seeming to have a more urgent cause than the last. Occasionally an officer would stop and start up a chat with her, but quickly moved on once they realized she wasn't listening.

Once in a while, Kuvira's eyes would flit over to Chief Beifong's shut door. On the other side, Kuvira knew that Beifong and the Republic City Council would be in a heated argument on how to approach the rising Equalist Party. The door to the Chief's office would only open every few minutes to allow a councilman to rush out, only for them to run back in a few minutes later. In the past half hour alone, Kuvira had counted that Tenzin had passed her desk eight times.

"Some crazy shit is going down right now." The desk creaked slightly with the added weight, and Kuvira adverted her eyes to the new guest. "The communications room is exploding."

Harumi picked up a few of the pictures that Kuvira was supposed to be studying. Her usually orderly bun had tendrils of hair sticking out and her eyes had large bags under them.

"What're you doing over here then? You don't usually leave the communications room when it's busy," Kuvira said.

"I don't ever leave the communications room, Kuvs—" Kuvira flinched at the nickname "—but there's been a bunch of incoming call of disappearances. It's quite alarming. And I wanted to talk to Chief Beifong about it, but clearly she's occupied." Both of them glanced over at the shut doors and Kuvira shrugged.

"They're discussing the growing popularity of the Equalist Party among nonbenders," Kuvira said. "It's just like the council to do this. Only take action when there is an immediate threat."

"Better late than never," Harumi said.

Kuvira shrugged and rifled through some papers. Harumi's eyes strayed to the newspaper resting by Kuvira's right arm. "Mind if I read that?"

Kuvira glanced over and shook her head. Harumi picked up the paper and snapped it open. There was a pregnant silence between the two girls, the only sound was the low murmuring of the other officers. Kuvira was just about to finish signing an arrest report when Harumi slapped the newspaper down in front of her, her eyes wide with excitement.

"Kuvs, look!"

Kuvira's eyes followed to the spot where Harumi was pointing. On the pro-bending page was a picture of the Fire Ferrets, a new amateur team. Mako had his arm slung around Bolin's shoulders and his other hand pointed at the camera with a look that said, "Come at me". Hasook was on Bolin's other side, looking as if he could think of a billion other places he would rather be.

"What am I looking at?" Kuvira asked.

Harumi's finger tapped on the picture rapidly as she leaned closer. "It's Mako. Isn't he simply dreamy?"

Kuvira slid the paper closer and peered at the picture. "If he didn't look like he hated the world."

Harumi rolled her eyes and swiped the paper back. "If you're not going to appreciate it, I don't think you deserve to even see a glimpse of it."

Kuvira rolled her eyes and glanced back at Beifong's office. "Aren't you and Zarveen still dating?"

Harumi postured stiffened and she shook her head. "I don't know anymore, actually. He's been weird lately. I should have heeded your advice and not date anyone I work with."

Kuvira threw her hands in the air and gave Harumi a look. "I told you it would be a bad idea. Xu and I can't even be in the same room together without it being awkward."

Harumi's eyes scanned the room for said ex-boyfriend, but to no avail. The other metalbending officer was out on patrol, and Kuvira was immensely thankful that Beifong had been considerate of the complicated mess that she and Xu created.

"But why is Zarveen being weird?" Kuvira asked.

"I don't know. We've been fighting a lot, about really, really dumb things. For example, the other day I walked into the communications room with my sleeves rolled down and he told me that I looked unprofessional."

Kuvira blinked at Harumi, who in return held her gaze. "Wait, sleeves rolled down looks unprofessional?"

Harumi threw her hands up in frustration and more tendrils of hair fell out of her bun. "That's exactly what I was thinking. So of course I told him he looked more unprofessional and I just—he makes me so mad now."

Kuvira opened her mouth to respond when the door to Beifong's office swung open. Tenzin was the first to exit the office. He was followed by the other council members, and Beifong stood in the doorway with her crossed and an unamused expression on her face.

"Thank you for meeting with us, Lin." Tenzin held a hand at his chest and gave a curt nod of his head. "I would love to stay and chat for a little bit—" Harumi and Kuvira exchanged a look "—but I must get going if I want to make it to the South Pole by sunset."

With that said, Tenzin turned briskly and rushed out of the office. The other councilmen gave Lin their respective nation's bow before following the airbender. Lin's eyes squinted in disapproval at the council's backs before she retreated back into her office.

"Now would be a good time to go talk to her," Kuvira said.

Harumi slid off of Kuvira's desk and straightened her uniform. She redid her bun and inspected herself in Kuvira's armor.

"You look fine," Kuvira said.

Harumi cocked an eyebrow and crossed her arms. "When you're talking to the Police Chief, you can't look fine. You have to look great." Kuvira smirked and Harumi shrugged. "Care to come in with me? Since you are Beifong's favorite metalbending officer and all."

Kuvira rolled her eyes but got up from her seat anyway. She stretched out her stiff muscles and then followed Harumi to the doors. She could feel the eyes of the other officers on them as Harumi knocked, and it took all of her willpower to not turn and yell at them to get back to work.

The doors opened sharply and Beifong narrowed her eyebrows at the two women outside her office. "What do you want? I have important papers I need to be filing."

"Sorry, Chief. Harumi's just been having some disturbing calls, and she wanted to talk to you about it," Kuvira said.

Beifong's eyes flitted over to Harumi and crossed her arms. "Harumi is a big girl, whatever she needs to tell me she can do it alone. Harumi, please step into my office."

Harumi's eyes widened for a split second before she followed Beifong into the office. Before the doors shut, she shot Kuvira a panicked look, which Kuvira just waved away.

"What's Harumi doing over here?" Kuvira turned to raise an eyebrow at her new guest. Lavana, who was her metalbending partner, held out a cup of day-old tea to her. "She usually stays to herself in the communications room. It must be serious."

Kuvira took the offered tea and was disheartened to find that not only was it old, but it was also incredibly cold. "She's been getting calls from around the city about disappearances. Usually, it's not a big deal. But I think that there's been quite a lot of them."

Lavana nodded slowly and blew on her tea, which Kuvira noted had a decent amount of steam coming off it. "I'm sure it has to deal with the Equalist Party. Word on the street is there's going to be some sort of rally next week for it, but no one knows where. And if anyone does know, they're not letting the tiger cat out of the bag. I'm pretty sure that's what the emergency council meeting was on today."

"They're allowed to rally," Kuvira said. "It's protected by the Republic Betterments."

"As long as it's peaceful," Lavana said. "But their leader doesn't strike me as the peaceful kind."
Kuvira's eyes narrowed and she set down her tea. "What do you mean?"

"Apparently his family was murdered by a firebender," Lavana said. "And he got away somehow, but at the price of his face. According to rumors, there's this scar on it. Worse than Firelord Zuko's."

Kuvira swore and flexed her hand. "And his political platform is to bring down benders, isn't it?"

Lavana nodded and Kuvira pinched the bridge of her nose. "Then we should figure out more on this rally."

"I'd say let's do it, but Lu and Gang are already on it."

Kuvira turned her head to look at the two detectives. They both sat at Lu's desk, a pile of Varricandy and Varricake wrappers were strewn across it. Lu had a newspaper over his face and Gang was unwrapping another Varricake.

"I still can't believe that they haven't been fired yet," Kuvira said.

"They pull through last minute," Lavana said.

"Very, very, very last minute," Kuvira said.

Lavana laughed and looked up at the clock. "Harumi's been in there for like, twenty minutes now. Do you think everything is okay?"

Kuvira glanced up at the clock and frowned. "I would think so. There hasn't been any—"

"Make sure if you hear any more calls to come to me right away, do you understand?" Kuvira quickly turned and arched an eyebrow as Harumi and Beifong stood in the doorway. Beifong eyebrows were knit together and her hand was on her hip. "If any more happen, I need some officers to do a stakeout then."

Harumi nodded once and Beifong clapped her shoulder for a quick second before she retreated back into her office. Once the doors were closed, Harumi rubbed her shoulder with a slight look of pain on her face.

"How did it go?" Kuvira asked.

"Fine, actually," Harumi said. "Beifong thinks that this has something to do with the Equalists—" Lavana nudged Kuvira and waggled her eyebrows "—but since there haven't been witnesses, it's hard to pinpoint exactly who is the cause. She wants to start looking into the Equalist Party, but the council keeps refusing. They say that since there is no immediate threat of danger, there's no reason to provoke an attack."

"I can guess which council member said that." Kuvira rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "But do they understand the platform that Amon is gaining followers on?"

"I think so, but you know Tenzin. He's an airbender. They're little peace fuckers," she said. "Besides, he's moving to the South Pole to teach the Avatar airbending. The council probably just said what he wanted to hear, and since he'll be gone the next few months, they'll take action."

Kuvira closed her eyes and counted to ten before she opened them again. "But the minute Tenzin realizes that the council took motion against his wishes, he'll just fly back. Going to the South Pole from Republic City on a flying bison only takes like, three hours."

"No plan is perfect," Harumi said.

Lavana's eyes flitted up to the clock once more before she broke out into a wide grin. "End of shift. You guys want to hit up Narook's Seaweed Noodlery?"

"Yes!" Harumi's eyes widened with excitement and she grabbed Lavana's arms. "Let's go, it's Sunday. That means that—" Harumi glanced behind Lavana before letting go of the other girl and straightening her posture. She cleared her throat and took a deep breath. "I mean, it sounds amazing. Shall we go now?"

Kuvira raised an eyebrow at her and followed where Harumi's eyes had darted to a few seconds prior. Zarveen stood at the other end of the room with a couple of metalbending officers. His glasses were lopsided and his hair stuck out at funny angles. His eyes would occasionally glance over at Harumi until he patted one of the officers on the back and made a beeline towards them.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no," Harumi whispered. "He's coming over—hi, Zar!"

"Hey, Harumi." Zarveen's eyes glanced down at Harumi's rolled down sleeves before looking back up to meet her eyes. "What are you doing tonight?"

"Oh, I'm going to Narook's with Lav and Kuvs." Both Lavana and Kuvira flinched at their nickname, and Zarveen seemed to notice that the other two girls were there too for the first time.

"Mind if I crash girl's night?" He asked.

Harumi's face split into what seemed like a painful smile and she turned to face Kuvira and Lavana. "Do you girls mind if he crashes our date?" She asked through gritted teeth.

"As long as we don't have to pay for him," Lavana said.

Harumi shot daggers at Lavana before turning back to face Zarveen. "If you want to come, sure."

Zarveen smiled and clasped Harumi's hand. "Great, let's get going then. I'm starving."

Kuvira and Lavana hung back for a couple of seconds and watched the couple leave. Behind her back, Harumi flicked Lavana the finger and then they disappeared behind the doors.

"Should I regret that decision?" Lavana asked as they grabbed their coats.

"We'll find out, won't we?" Kuvira said.

XxXxX

Kuvira didn't know about Lavana, but she regretted inviting Zarveen out. He seemed completely oblivious to Harumi's obvious discomfort, and he ended up making the outing fairly awkward.

The only exciting part was when Bolin and Mako walked into the restaurant. Their faces expressed utter exhaustion, and Kuvira assumed that they had just come from a pro-bending match. In the seat next to her, Harumi's posture stiffened and she lifted her head a little to get a better view.

"Someone seems to be perking up now," Zarveen commented.

Harumi froze in her actions and Lavana smirked into her tea. Zarveen glanced at the pro-bending brothers once before turning his full attention to Lavana.

"So, Lavana, I have a question for you."

"And I'll have an answer."

"Do you wear your sleeves rolled down, or rolled up?"

Kuvira choked on the noodles she had put in her mouth and Harumi smacked her on the back to help. Lavana glanced down at her metalbending uniform and flexed her fingers.

"Well, you see, I wear metal. So, I guess I wear them rolled down?" Lavana said.

"Let's say you had an operator's uniform, or a cop's or a detective's," Zarveen said.

Lavana glanced over at Harumi, who refused to meet her eyes. "I guess, I guess I'd have them rolled down. It seems a little more streamlined."

Clearly unsatisfied with her answer, Zarveen turned to face Kuvira. "What about you? Rolled up or down?"

"Well, like Lavana said, I wear me—"

"If you were a cop or operator or detective," Zarveen cut in quickly.

"I'd—I'd have to say rolled down, for the same reason that Lavana gave," Kuvira said.

Zarveen's nostrils flared and he waved over one of the servers. Kuvira glanced at Harumi and saw that her eyes were staring down at her hands, refusing to look anyone in the eyes.

"Hey, if you were to have a uniform like mine, would you—"

"Oh my god enough already!" Harumi slammed her hands down on the table, making a few water glasses fall off the table and break. The restaurant went silent and everyone's eyes were on them. "The way I wear my sleeves doesn't matter! I don't see what the big problem is with me wearing them rolled down! You look like a fucking nomad with yours rolled up! It's not classy, it's unprofessional, and it's overall just a bad look!"

Zarveen gaped at Harumi, and Kuvira and Lavana quickly shoved some seaweed noodles into their mouths.

"Harumi, I just wanted to know," Zarveen said slowly. "I wasn't trying to upset you."

"If you weren't trying to upset me, you wouldn't ask everyone in the god damn city!" She said.

"I didn't ask everyone in the god damn city!" Zarveen said. "I just asked Kuvira and Lavana!"

Harumi stood up quickly, and Zarveen did the same. Lavana glanced over at Kuvira with a worried expression.

"Should we—should we go?" She asked.

Kuvira nodded vigorously and they both slapped down some Yuans. Kuvira slid out of the booth and quickly followed Lavana out of the restaurant, pausing only to thank Narook and leave him a tip.

"Do you think that they'll be okay?" Lavana asked once they were on the safety of the street. "I'll feel really bad if they break up and it's my fault."

"No, Harumi's been angry with him for some time," Kuvira said.

They were just about to turn the corner when Harumi caught up to them.

"Thanks for ditching me," she said flatly.

"Sorry, we thought it needed to be a, uh, more…private conversation," Lavana said.

Harumi rolled her eyes. "We were in a packed restaurant. I doubt that there was any privacy in there."

Kuvira laughed and slowed down. The other girls followed suit until they came to a complete stop. "What happened after we left?"

"Oh, we broke up," Harumi said matter-of-factly. Kuvira and Lavana exchanged a look and Harumi shrugged. "If you guys must press me for the details, I broke up with him. After that, he was begging for me to give him another chance. I told him to fuck off and then I ran after you guys."

Kuvira raised an eyebrow and Harumi shrugged again. "It was coming. It was inevitable. And I am also quite glad that Mako was there."

"Wait, why? He saw how explosive you are," Kuvira said.

"Because now he sees that I'm a single woman who is ready to mingle."

With that said, Harumi began walking again, this time with a small spring to her step. Kuvira and Lavana watched her walk away, and then Lavana turned to face Kuvira.

"She is one messed up child," she said.

"Well said," Kuvira stated.

Lavana nodded appreciatively and then they jogged to catch up to Harumi, who was talking animatedly about Mako's eyebrows.

Author's Note, pt. II:

THANKS FOR MAKING IT TO THIS POINT. THERE WAS PROBABLY SOME ERRORS IN IT AND I APOLOGIZE BUT I TRIED MY BEST.

ANYWAY, HERE ARE THE OC'S:

Harumi: the operator who Bryan ships Mako with

Lavana: that dancer who has the short hair from Suyin's dance troupe and did the ending stance with Kuvira. I brought her over in this AU.

Zarveen: the operator who sits on Harumi's right in "Turning the Tides" who sends the telegram to General Iroh.