Saturated storm clouds darkened Republic City's evening. The lampposts glowed dingy orange lighting on its streets.
Inside the Beifong residence, curled up on the couch with a workbook, only Lin was home. It seemed like Lin was the always the only one home these days.
With her sister gone, her boyfriend nonexistent, and her mother taking every shift imaginable, Lin felt she could tell the time of day with a clock based on what became her personal daily schedule.
Wake up, get ready for class, do field work, come home for lunch, go to the precinct, do more field work, do a final sweep, eat dinner, study, go to bed, rinse, repeat.
Still it was better than the alternative: dealing with her mother in any way that wasn't in an official police business setting.
Busy being a hard worker or busy being quiet, those were Lin's options; there was never a moment's peace anymore.
Ever since Su had gone, or maybe even longer than that, Lin could hardly breathe the same air as her mother.
The space of her childhood home got smaller and smaller each time she blinked. She felt encased, trapped. But, she had grown used to that feeling. If she begun acting any other way, she'd turn as frivolous as Su, and she'd rather continue life like this forever than live like some brat who shirked responsibilities.
Lin didn't hear the front door open or notice her mother turn the corner into the living room until she bumped the end of the couch and the surprise caused her to look up.
"Lin?"
Not seeing the point in looking directly at her mother, Lin opted to stare at their reflection in the adjacent window instead.
"What's with the outfit?"
"Your Aunt dug it out for me."
"Aunti-" Lin caught herself, as always, and went back to her studies, "Did she tell you what it was?"
"Of course she did! You know Katara can't lie." Toph walked into the kitchen, the lengthy green robes looked… obscure on her body.
Lin was too used to seeing her mother in uniform to think she wore anything else.
"Have you eaten?"
She eyed her mother. Instead of heading straight to bed, Toph continued passed the hallway towards the kitchen.
"No…" She responded carefully.
"So what do you want to eat?"
"What, did Aunti-Aunt Katara cook too much again?"
"No, I'm gonna do it."
Lin's head reeled back slightly, "Mother you don't cook."
"I might as well do something, don't you think? It's our last week together and all."
Raising her brow, Lin picked her book up again, "You're going on another mission?" She sighed through her nose, releasing her unnecessarily built up tension, "Don't cook, it'd just leave me with a fire to put out."
"I'm not going on a mission."
The racket of pots and pans grew louder and broke Lin's concentration. Huffing, she began collecting some of the papers on the table and stood up, "Then I'll eat at Aunti-"
A loud bang, much too forceful to be a simple kitchenware mishap, seemed to explode the stuffy air.
"Dammit Lin just sit down and eat with your Mother!"
Those words made her freeze.
It wasn't as though she hadn't been yelled at by her mother before, that being another striking difference between her and Su, but she'd never been yelled at like that.
That and, her mother had never cursed at her.
"What's wrong with you?" Lin asked, still stuck in place.
Toph mimicked the question and continued on, "What's wrong with you Lin? Why are you so eager to go eat with your ex-boyfriend's mother instead of your own when she just told you she's leaving?"
Bringing up Tenzin like that caused a pang in her heart that Lin chose to ignore.
"It's not like you're leaving forever or something."
Toph was silent, spurning Lin's consternation.
There was long, deafening silence; their small home seemed to lengthen exponentially as Lin noticed how far her mother truly seemed right now; how far the living room seemed from the kitchen even though it was right there.
"And just where are you going?"
"Twinkletoes calls it a 'Search for Enlightenment'."
"Uncle told you to do this?"
Toph's snort lacked it's usually passion, "As if he could tell me to do anything. I'm doing this for me, handed in my resignation today and everything."
Lin's grasp on the papers slipped to the floor around her but she gripped her book hard. Every word her mother said caused the world to spin quicker and quicker and she deserved some sort of leverage.
"You did what?"
"What are you getting so bent out of shape for? I thought you'd be happy to be the new sheriff in town."
"What are you talking about?"
"When I handed in my resignation I highly recommended you."
Suddenly, the spinning stopped.
It stopped and it was terrible because now all Lin could focus on was the sick feeling in her throat and the burning in her nose and how far away her mother was.
"Why would you do something like that without asking me?" Lin yelled, the book cover straining underneath her fingertips.
"You're the daughter of the former Chief of Police and you're top of your class, who did you think was going to get the job?"
"No one for at least ten more years!" Her voice cracked and Lin slapped her free hand up to cover her mouth.
Toph's posture stiffened, and she began approaching her daughter.
"Lin."
Lin knew that pitiable tone and it pissed her off.
She threw her book hard against the window. Had she been holding anything else it would have surely shattered the glass.
She wanted it to shatter.
She wanted the entire house to feel the way she felt; Lin wanted to rant, to rave, to go mad with rage and let it consume them both until she was nothing left.
But that wasn't who Lin was. It wasn't what Lin did.
"Fine. Go." She spoke evenly, eyes glaring into her mother's," There are plenty of other qualified earthbenders."
Toph paused in front of her, forcing Lin to notice lines she hadn't noticed before, "What is that supposed to mean?"
"It means you're replaceable at this point. It means maybe your self-proclaimed "Greatest Earthbender of All Time" title should be "Best of Her Generation."
Toph's patience was wearing thin. One simple meal in one simple week was all she wanted and the idea had derailed. This was why she had to leave. She didn't want this family crumbling any more than it already had.
Lin however, stood her ground. In the back of her mind she knew what she was doing: Provoking her mother had always been the surest way to get her attention. Even if it erupted into her mother having to prove herself in a match, Lin was prepared to give it everything she had.
She couldn't leave if she was injured.
But then, her mother did something unexpected.
Turned away from her.
"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that because you're obviously tired, and you've clearly forgotten who you're speaking to."
She turned away from her, walked down the hall and closed her door. When she felt Lin trying to go to her door to continue arguing, she encased a protective slab of earth around it.
Letting aggravation fuel her own movements, Lin went to her room and slammed the door.
Lin awoke at the crack of dawn, a blanket tucked over her in a bitterly nostalgic way. Immediately she sat up and slammed her feet against her sandstone floor, her seismic sense vibrating, telling her her Mother was leaving the kitchen and heading to the living room.
She flung her door open, forcing herself to make her presence known.
Toph hesitated at the mouth of the hall long enough for Lin to see her dressed in the same clothes, with the addition of a large knapsack on her back.
Lin sighed. She was so tired, so frustrated, "Now what are you doing?"
"What's it look like? I'm leaving."
Lin walked forward, going around the table to act as some sort of guard between Toph and the door.
"You said you were here for a week."
"I never was one for waiting."
"Are you serious? You're acting like a child!"
"Well," Toph stretched the word in a mocking tone, "in twenty two years of living with you I realized maybe your problem was you never knew how a child was supposed to act and figured I should finally teach you. I am your Mother after all."
Lin's eyes narrowed, "Just because you can give birth doesn't make you a 'Mother'."
And she didn't mean it. Of course she didn't mean it, it was her mother's greatest passed down ability to speak around the foot in her mouth talking, but it was out there.
It was out there and she… she couldn't take it back.
She just couldn't.
The apology was stuck in her throat and Toph couldn't see how she tried to swallow the lump in her throat or the regret on her face.
Her mother had never been closer than at that moment. Close enough for them to know that they were intentionally not looking at each other.
Close enough for Lin's heart to speed up as that once comforting shoulder passed by her own.
Close enough for Lin to realize the distance in their house was nothing compared to this.
Yet, far away enough for Lin to fall to her knees and cry like the child Toph remembered.