A Matter of Clarification

"Bei Fong!"

For a moment, Korra worried she hadn't ditched Tenzin fast enough. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw by a streetlamp the glint of light on armor and sprinted after the retreating back of the chief of police. "Hey! Bei Fong!"

The older woman turned as Korra closed the distance between them, folded her arms across her chest, and fixed Korra with a sharp-eyed stare that made Korra falter. "I mean—Chief," she said. "Chief Bei Fong."

"Yes?"

"I just thought..." Korra scuffed the toe of her boot against the sidewalk. "I mean, after everything that happened tonight, since we're going to work together, I thought—I mean..."

"Spit it out, kid," Bei Fong said. "I haven't got all night."

"I know about you and Tenzin," she blurted out.

She winced when Bei Fong tensed her mouth and glared at her. Hadn't she learned anything about tact since that awkwardness with Mako the other night? Apparently not.

"And what of it?" Bei Fong said, her voice gone all steely.

"Uh," Korra said. "Well, that's why you're so... I mean... isn't it?"

"That's what Tenzin told you?"

"Well... no," Korra admitted, dropping her gaze. Looking Bei Fong in the eyes made her nervous. "It's sort of the opposite of what Tenzin told me, actually."

Bei Fong rubbed her eyes with one hand, and Korra shifted from foot to foot guiltily with the realization that she was wasting her time with this. The woman had been electrocuted twice in one night and still had work to do back at headquarters.

"Let me be clear," Bei Fong said. "We are not, nor shall we ever be, discussing the nature of my relationship with Tenzin, past, present, or future."

"No Tenzin," Korra agreed quickly. "Got it. No Tenzin."

"However," Bei Fong continued, "as for the nature of my relationship with you, suffice it to say you're... difficult enough without Tenzin's interference."

"Hey!" Korra drew herself up, bristling. "I'm not difficult."

Bei Fong held up a hand, silencing her. "Need I remind you that our first meeting occurred with you in one of my cells for vandalism and evading arrest?"

"But that was—I was trying to help," Korra protested. "I stopped them from destroying a shop."

"By destroying several yourself." Bei Fong shook her head. "You're unfamiliar with the concept of paperwork, aren't you?

"You are," she continued, "impulsive, reckless, and a general nuisance to me."

"So... you're saying you dislike me because of me, and not because of Tenzin."

"Precisely." Bei Fong startled Korra by patting her shoulder awkwardly. "Cheer up, kid. You're not all bad." Her face softened some. "My mother would have loved you, you know. You're just her type."

Korra chanced meeting Bei Fong's eyes again, and promptly looked away. "Really?"

"Really." She paused. "It's a shame you couldn't have come at a better time, but some real world experience will do you a world of good, I think. Good night, young Avatar."

The conversation finished, Bei Fong turned on her heel and headed towards downtown.

"Hey!" Korra shouted after her. "Now that we're friends, do you think maybe you could teach me metalbending sometime?"

"No," Bei Fong called back over her shoulder. "Absolutely not."