West of the Portal

by Cuofeng

Two years after the Earth Empire's invasion of the United Republic, the Avatar has organized an International Conclave near the spirit portal crater to forestall future global conflict. Or try to. In fact, Korra and her staff mostly deal with the press and the public, complainers and flubs, and not actually having the legal authority for any of this.

2. 1-2

...

Min found herself walking through the corridors of the Avatar's headquarters sandwiched between the elegantly coifed and manicured Chao, and Bolin who despite his well tailored suit looked like he would rather have his sleeves rolled up and his rough hands dirty. Next to Chao's slender, towering height and Bolin's suggestion of thick muscle under those sleeves, Min felt small and unprepared. She was also belatedly recognizing that she was not going to be taken to the typing pool. Something about this man named Bolin was familiar though, and not just in the archtype of well-meaning muscle he represented. Min was absently examining his face, poking at her memory when he noticed her staring at him. Min quickly looked away and tried to not blush at being caught acting so ditzy. Of course, as she did so she managed to trip herself on a strip of carpet at the top of a staircase Chao had just begun to descend.

In the slow moment as she felt herself falling backwards over the lip of the stairs, Min just had time to wish she was knocked out clean so she could get a fresh start on this day which had rapidly spiraled out of her control. But before her head cloncked into pleasant oblivion, strong arms caught her and she found herself once more looking up into Bolin's face.

Suddenly she had it. "I know who you are! You're Nuktuk!" She exclaimed triumphantly.

Bolin smiled. "Ah, you saw me in my movies did you?"

"No! Not one!"

"Oh," said Bolin, the wind abruptly taken out of his sails.

Min was still being held at a nearly horizontal angle. "Um, but please don't drop me all the same."

"What? Oh, sorry!" said Bolin, helping Min to back to her feet in a burst of apology.

As she got her feet back under her felt she needed to explain. "No, you see there were a lot of posters all over the city for those movies but I was very busy, and..."

"Hurry up you two!" called Chao from the bottom of the staircase, having missed the entire near-death interlude. "Even if this is Verrik's man I can only keep him waiting for so long." As Min hurried down the stairs to fall back into rapid stride with Chao she found the Press Secretary glaring at an approaching door with apprehension.

He adjusted his shining cufflinks. "Ugh, that Verrik. I can't stand the man. He is just so flamboyant and excessive I could just kill myself right here and now!" But with that he pushed open the door and was suddenly all glowing smiles. "I apologize profusely for the delay. With the construction we are still settling in here and I..." Min saw his smile catch.

The room was of about twice the size of a normal office and arrayed in an official looking format with one tall chair behind a desk and an arc of smaller seats before it, all lit by a window mercifully unobstructed by scaffolding outside. A lanky Water Tribe man with wavy hair and a long garish coat sat sprawled in the big chair, his expensive leather shoes kicked up onto the desk. Min guessed that was Chao's desk.

The seated man made an expansively dismissive gesture. Everything about him was loud and brash from his clothes to his voice. "Not at all! I've just been poking around to see what it was that Verricorp's donation paid for in this place you're building. I saw that you guys decided to go for the pneumatic system for your intra-office messages. You've been bamboozled! I know those tubes might play on her airbender tradition but this expensive dooda is nothing compared to what I've been cooking up. Imagine, if you will, your walls filed with thousands of hungry..."

"Mister Verrik!" Chao was still projecting warmth, but now it was the warmth of a steadily approaching lava flow. "So glad you could join us! Surely though, you understand that Verricorp's contribution to the Avatar's cause does nothing to entitle you to get whatever-"

"Oh, of course not. I don't expect to get anything for that. It would be completely improper for me to expect to benefit derive any benefit from gifts made by Verricorp. I'm with Verrimedia you see, different company, completely unaffiliated with any other enterprise which may or may not be under investigation for anticompetitive consolidation in whatever many countries that are so rude about things like warrants for arrest."

Min had frozen in the doorway when Chao stopped walking, not sure of what she was supposed to be doing and so was now pressed into the frame as Bolin made his own way past her. He was grinning broadly but had a skeptical eyebrow raised. "Really, Verrik? Your name is on both companies, and you are saying you're only the CEO of Verrimedia now? Give us a break."

Verrik jumped out of his purloined chair with unnatural energy. "Bolin! Excellent, now it's a party! And you are perceptive as always. Indeed I am also Chair, Executive, Board President, and Managerial Magnate Supreme and Plenipotentiary of Verrimedia corporation and international holdings." He held up a land to his mouth for an aside. "I tried making myself a Duke but apparently the national charter has something to say about self-awarded titles of nobility. Ridiculous!"

Chao was not to be out off by blather and made his own attack. "As my colleague said, surely you don't actually expect us to believe you have no affiliation with a firm that shares your name. Zhuli Verrik, president of Verricorp, is your wife."

"Yes and no. Yes in that she is the love of my life, my heart, my soul, my everything from now until the end of time, and no in that what we sent to the registrar's office was not technically a marriage certificate but actually a complex web of asset sharing agreements and ad hoc consultation contracts that under close inspection do not actually fit the legal definition of-"

Chao had quickly seized his vacated chair and now ran a hand across his brow in exhausted frustration. "Mister Verrik, why are you here?"

"Hmmm? Oh, right! I just popped over with my buddy Yong to make sure he got settled in all right. Yong! Stand up man, this is the Avatar's press secretary!"

Min and Bolin both jerked with surprise at realizing that there was another person in the room. He was a drab, grey man with dark slicked-down hair sitting quietly in one of the corner chairs and somehow managing to blend in remarkably well with the upholstery in both color and manner. He stood up smoothly and continued to say nothing as Verrik paced around the room.

"I thought I might as well come in with him," Verrik said. "I had a free morning and there have been some problems in the past with our credentials." He raised his eyebrows meaningfully.

Chao sighed. "For the last time you can not issue yourself credentials to our building."

"I was being proactive! The news moves fast. Yong! Sit down, you're making everyone nervous looming back there! Where was I?"

Bolin volunteered, "Basically, admitting that you're just here to bother Chao?"

Verrik thrust out his arm to point at him. "Right! Sharp as a tack this kid. Speaking of sharp how are you doing? They ground you down to a powder here yet with the giving away money to freeloaders bit they've got you roped into?"

"It's the Office of Aid and Development actually, but yeah, I'm really liking it. Matter of fact, right now I'm working on-"

Verrik interrupted, "That's peachy! You're looking good, my man. Things still going well with that Beifong airbender girl or is that pretty little thing hanging out behind you something I shouldn't be mentioning?"

Min sputtered in offended protest but her reaction was still far less than Bolin's who whipped his head around, terrified as if the entire press corp was going to burst out of the walls in that instant. He yelled out, "Whoa woah woah, no! No! Everything with Opal is great! Great great great and please don't say otherwise to anyone! She hears things."

Verrik strode over and clapped the younger man on the back before hooking his arm around his shoulders. "Great to hear! But now comes the next step. Snagging a Beifong was a good move but you have to lock that down! I'm telling you, marriage opens a lot of doors. I can even get you a great deal on the ring, I just acquired a jewelry store. At least I think I did. Anyway, I have a pile of gemstones on my desk and I'm happy to help!"

"That's very, er, nice." Bolin began awkwardly, looking very nervous as he plucked the arm from off of him. "But marriage is not exactly what we're doing right now and anyway you just said that you are not really married to Zhuli. What are you doing championing marriage?"

"Champion shmampion," Verrik said dismissively. "You say potato, I say premium potato flavored additive substitute soon to be on the market from Verrifoods inc. But think about it. You're not going to stay here at this feel-good collective forever, and when you do change venues a married man projects stability to the average Li on the street. The people really respond to that stuff."

Now Bolin was starting to get defensive. "Hey, I like working with the Avatar crew. It gives me a chance to help people without, you know, accidentally ending up working for an aggressive conquering warmonger."

Verrick wiggled his fingers in an equivocating way, "Let's just say I've met the Avatar and that is not the best comparison you could have chosen since she may have just not gotten around to it yet, but I see your point. But I'm helping people too! I'm entertaining, I'm explaining, I'm briefly hydroplaning but only because I forgot to slow the car down on that left turn this morning and I've already paid for that fence. And Yong here is going to help me reach even more people with The Truth!" He struck a triumphant pose for some audience only he could see.

Chao wearily interjected himself. "Once again I object to your newspaper's name in the strongest possible terms. The hypocrisy is borders on obscenity."

"What's to object? I'm breaking no laws. You know what they say, truth and advertising!"

"That's not the...There is an exclamation mark in the masthead! Page three is just pictures of women in clingy dresses!"

"Well, you've got to reel the people in before you can hit them with the heavy stuff. It's not like we're fluff. Right now we're running an ongoing story about those unscrupulous profiteers who took advantage of the war to snap up blocks of old downtown real estate for peanuts. Scandalous!"

Someone new to the conversation piped up and said, "Whereas you went just outside the city and snapped up miles in Nanxiang village real estate. Almost like you knew the president's sprawl plans a week before they were announced and the land prices there skyrocketed." It was not until everyone was looking at her that Min realized that had been her own voice. Wow, she really needed to work on not doing that.

Verrik was now examining her suspiciously. "Who's your friend, Bolin? She's not with the trade ministry is she?"

"No, she's a new hire, works for us," Chao said.

"Oh, well in that case, spot on lady!" The suspicion was gone in a heartbeat and Verrik moved in close with uncomfortable familiarity. "Good eye! Oh, and if you are thinking about leaving this do-gooder stuff behind to move that sharp noggin out to the hip and happening city of silver lights, open auditions for screen and radio start at nine every day and I have a new residential development opening next week full of prime opportunities at reasonable rates for a promising first time homeowner about to make it big. Pretty gal like you could easily be star in beautiful Nanxiang, the Town of Tomorrow!" Min found Verrik's arm around her shoulder and the other spread palm waving to some vision that was supposedly appearing before her eyes. She looked around the room for some offer of help.

Chao decided it was his duty to extricate her. "If you are done trying to remold my people in your trustworthy image, perhaps we can get these credentials out of the way so we don't waste any more of your precious time. Bolin, weren't you preparing something on the Chin issue?"

Bolin took the hint. "You're right. I'll get right on it. I just need to get the papers from Ming, and the papers from Inuksuk, and the papers from...man this job has a lot of paper," he said with a sigh.

"Take Jin here to help carry some of that stuff, just send her back when you are done." Chao said gesturing to Min. "Miss Luo, bare with us and I'll get you to your proper job in communicants soon enough." He was gentle and polite but his gesturing was actually more like shoving in the speed with which Min found herself outside the room.

She tried to interject herself anyway. "Um, actually sir, it's Min. Min Liu. And I am not here for communications I am actually supposed to be in the typing... and the door is closed."

...

Bolin casually gestured for Min to follow him down the green-walled hallway and bereft of options she complied. As they headed off to some other location within these bowels of the Avatar's headquarters he began to speak to her in an apologetic tone.

"Sorry about Verrik. When you first meet him he tends to come off as a little...extreme. But when you get to know him...Well, he's still that way but you like him a bit more."

Min shook her head. "No, it's fine, I just...I have a bad habit of speaking my mind when I really shouldn't."

"Hey now, that doesn't sound like a bad thing. Just honesty."

"Well, honestly, there is a reason I'm here looking for a new job."

Bolin considerately looked away. "Ahh, gotcha. Will say no more." Then he crossed his arms in thought. "Hmmm, ok. First I need to go to Amishiq's security office to clear with her about coordinating for the Chin mission; she likes to be the one who talks to Yushin about Lotus deployments. Oh, and then I should probably find Aoto to get the political slant before I have the proposal ready for Korra." He was counting off his mental process on the fingers of one hand and his eyes were distant as he twisted his mouth to the side.

In her sudden moment of shock Min's foot caught on the floor again but fortunately this time she managed to catch a hand on the hallway wall did not go tumbling. Bolin did not seem to notice her near crisis and that did something to help her embarrassment. It was very surprising to hear someone so casually refer to the Avatar by her given name. Well, Min supposed it should not be a shock given that these people worked in the same building but all the same it was like hearing her mother or father referred to by their first names. Somehow, even though it was reasonable, it just seemed wrong.

Then Bolin ducked to the side and they were through another set of large double doors. Min felt a distinct change in the atmosphere here. The rest of this half-constructed building that she had seen so far was characterized by a pervading air of barely contained chaos but here for some reason it felt more, well, ordered. Even the clerks at their desks were dressed more severely and sitting up straighter to the clack-clack sound of typewriters. Min was not sure what they did here but apparently it involved a lot of maps on the walls. Bolin made his way straight back to the rear of the space where a secretary sat at a desk positioned just to the side of a large, heavy door in the middle of the back wall. That door was left partly ajar to show a middle-aged woman inside working away at her heavy wooden desk. Bolin seemed to see that woman too and he tried to look nonchalant as his path sidled off course enough to take him out of view. Min followed his lead and as she did she caught a glimpse of a suppressed smile on one of the clerks she passed.

When they reached the secretary's desk Bolin leaned over and rather quietly said, "Jin? Chao is working on a response to the Qin message that came in this morning and I'd like to take a reconstruction mission plan to the Avatar, so if you could just let your boss know that-"

"Bolin?" came a strong and authoritative voice from the open office door.

Bolin winced but composed himself as he answered. "Er, yes?"

"Get in here if you want to talk to me."

He quickly shuffled into view of the office and reflexively snapped into a salute. "Yes, general," he said as strode in.

Min felt the amused eyes of the outer office populace landing on her so she slinked forward to follow close behind him, afraid that if she lost one of the few people who recognized her permission to be this deep in the building she would find herself thrown in some Lotus cell. Inside the office, a serious looking woman in her fifties who was placing her reading glasses down on the desk as she looked up from the message she had been writing. Just like all the workers in the room outside, her suit was dark, professional, and immaculate.

The woman sighed at Bolin's formality, and even that was projected with more force than Min thought she could muster in a yell. "I'm retired Bolin, and you were never in my military to begin with. Just say what you want."

"Of course Amishiq, sir." Bolin said, as he put his hands behind his back and slightly widened his stance. "We got a cable in from Chin province this morning. They say..."

Amishiq nodded and gestured to her side. "Yes, the storm. I got that too. Omashu will be glad for the water if enough of it makes it over the hills to the headwaters, but what I am really praying for is some of the south-plains rebel groups getting flushed out of those river canyons they have been holding up in. Of course, it's not like the local governmental forces are in the position to exploit that opportunity and what I've been hearing from the conclave wing does not give me much hope for that changing." She growled under her breath. "I could give that damn King Wu such a shaking. He just had to stir everything up just after it was all put back together."

Bolin seemed to be relaxing. At least he was slowly easing out of the military posture he had adopted. "Yeah, all that and, well, I was wanting to put together a proposal for helping with reconstruction in Chin where the storm looks likely to hit. I've already got a decent number of supplies built up in the warehouses but I..."

Amishiq was not done talking, venting some long building frustrations. "Gods and spirits, we're scrimping and saving here to be able to pull people out of the mud. Everyone asks for something but no one wants to foot the Avatar's bill." She gestured to one of the larger pile of documents on her desk. "I've got here on my desk a stack of intervention requests the height of my fist and the budget for my pinky. Bandits, spirits, blasted earth nation cities raising their own forces for petty long-burning feuds. The only one's who have been consistent with their funding contributions to us are the Air Nation but they are facing their own problem now."

This last detail alarmed Bolin. "Wait, what's happening with the Nation? Opal didn't say anything about any crisis."

"Relax son, this is the type of fighting done by lawyers, not that I would consider that much less dangerous." Amishiq drew forth a paper from one stack on her desk but as far as Min could tell she did even not glance at it. She continued from memory:

"Air nation land rights have been murky for as long as I can tell and for the last hundred and fifty years they've damn right opaque. Ha, no one had a problem with the ancient nomads claiming the skies before anyone had airships but suddenly airspace is getting mighty precious. Those grabby Earth provinces are getting sick of old nomad law. You know I have had two airship captains refuse to carry Lotus squads on deployment in the last month alone? And the airtemple lands have more delinquents than rent payers."

Bolin scratched his head. "I knew there were some issues about insisting on Avatar Right for passage, but I thought that the Temples had plenty of income. Aang struck some sort of deal for the acolytes with the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation way back when?"

Amishiq snorted, "Sure they were entitled to plenty, as long as they didn't bother collecting. But now with Master Tenzin folding his new forces into our faction's stated mission there are bills and a lot of the Air Nation's 'tenants' are claiming finders-keepers on the land they've occupied for a century. To top off the money worries, the Fire Nation is feeling a lot less guilty with their pursestrings nowadays." She wearily adjusted her glasses with a finger, sliding them further back along the bridge of her nose.

"Well, at least Fire Lord Izumi is signing over that big check for the Harmony Restoration anniversary. That should keep us running for a while." Bolin paused. "Or fifteen minutes. Heck, I don't know, I have no real idea of how much all this costs. I just hand my proposals to budget and see half of it come back with lines through the middle. Man, things were easier under Kuvira. Er, much more opressy and bad, but the paperwork was easier."

The thought came to Min very suddenly that there was something she should be saying here, if only she knew what on earth that was supposed to be. Something had sounded an alarm in her head, but it gave no hint as to what that meant. There was something tickling her memory; some detail she was missing although it should be obvious. Had she heard something or seen something on the ex-general's desk?

Amishiq continued talking to Bolin, oblivious to Min's internal struggle. "So, Chin, huh? You know, it would be very nice if we could get an airship to go through that spirit portal we have right behind us. It's a shame the tribes are getting all the supply benefits from theirs and we can't make use of the thing in our own city. The Avatar has been hesitant to allow that but I think she might be able to be convinced."

He nodded. "I was actually saying the same to Aoto, or something on those lines. A plan anyway. Speaking of, I need to remember to find him after I leave here so I can get him in on this as well.

Amishiq waved her hand. "Well, just stick around. He's been in and out of this office every half hour all day and he is due for his next orbit from Political Affairs any minute. In the meantime, is there any reason why your new assistant appears to be magnetized to your back?"

Min had been slowly scooting closer to the ex-general's desk each time the older woman absently gestured to some of the tantalizing documents lying there as she monologued. By now Min found herself on tip toes peeking over Bolin's shoulder. A shoulder which smacked her in the nose when he suddenly spun around in surprise.

"Oh, I am so sorry!...again," he said as Min squeezed her nose and waved off his concern, more chocked by embarrassment than by any pain. Bolin looked back at the commander, as Min assumed she must be titled. "Sir, er, Amishiq, she's not my assistant. This is...Lin? She's a new hire of Chao's and I was supposed to be borrowing her for a few minutes,"

Min gently corrected, "Actually, my name is Min Liu and I'm not-"

A loud voice rang out from the office of clerks outside. "Fools! I am plagued by fools!"

"Ah, and there's our Sozin's comet now." Amishiq said, grateful for some other focus than Bolin and Min's babbling. "Aoto's here."

The voice from out in the main office quickly approached into easy hearing distance. "Xiaxia, do I have some sort of strange birthmark on my forehead that spells out 'give me your ridiculous problems'? Should I be seeing a dermatologist, or is this just some conspiracy to keep me from ever focusing on anything important?"

This new entrant did not have the same parade ground vocal projection of Amishiq but none the less had enough passion in his voice to create a momentary lull in the bustling noise of office work. Min peaked out the door to see the short, greying political advisor she had first met in the entrance hallway now striding in to Amishiq's department. He was followed behind by a much taller woman who was vainly waving a paper by his face in an effort to make Aoto see it.

Amishiq leaned back in her chair and steepled her fingers before her in anticipation as the grumbling drew closer. "Aoto, how nice of you to drop by again. It's been what, almost an hour? I was getting worried. What can I help you with?"

He burst through the doorway without slowing, his assistant ducking in after him. "Help? Ha! Oh, I need help. Do you know what I have been getting from President Raiko's office? Is it a response to my request that he moderate his inflammatory public stance regarding the bordering Earth Provinces? Is it that he is going to finally officially recognize the Avatar's sovereign claim of the portal land and this building? No, it's about some local lobbying committee demanding, demanding, that the Avatar formerly renounce her Water Tribe citizenship."

Bolin looked up in absent thoughtfulness. "Hey yeah, wait, she isn't actually a U.R. citizen, is she? Huh, I guess that I sort of forgot she would have a birth certificate somewhere."

"Oh, not just one, but two! Two certificates!" Aoto said, forcefully flinging up two fingers in what Min suspected had to be a rude gesture in some country. "Since that was before the Southern Republic split off, the North insists all the southern tribe members born then still have northern citizenship. Of course the South refuses to recognize those citizenships so if she was even going to make an announcement of renouncing whatever she has, someone is going to get mad when she mentions the wrong number of citizenships." He began to pace, throwing up his arms. "Oh, and she's in line to be a queen there in the north as well, so there's that!"

"I think the tribes have chieftains." Min quietly volunteered, and saw Amishiq's eyes flick to her with a faint smile.

"Kings, Khans, whatever!" Aoto said without showing any sign of noticing her. "These same lobbyist people are freaking out about the Avatar being anywhere near the line of succession to the North. Talking about undue bias, as if the entire rest of the world doesn't accuse her of favoring the United Republic."

Bolin mused, "Huh, right. I suppose she would be, what, fourth in line for the Northern Water Tribe throne? Palace? Chieftainship...ness?"

"Third, but the current chief is two people by bizarre Northern tradition about twins. As if that made this succession mess any less complicated." Aoto said with a growl directed, for lack of a more proximate target, at Bolin himself.

He flung up his hands. "Hey, don't look at me. I'm not in line to be anything. Eska and I were just engaged. Briefly. I mean I suppose that technically that might mean..."

Here Amishiq broke in. "Bolin, as fascinating as the political ramifications of your love life are, I think Aoto was here for some other reason?"

Aoto looked up, clearly surprised that anyone had bothered to keep track of what he was talking about. He vacantly took in Min's presence in the room with mildly bemused recognition as he replied to Amishiq.

"What? Oh, right. The reason I came over here. Chao's got it in his head this mourning to push Raiko over all the favoritism there's been in awarding contracts for the city expansion. He's talking about making a big deal of blind bids to offset this and maybe get the city good product instead of happy political donors. But that means we have to follow that blind bid rule too. Any acquisition plans Yushin has for the Lotus might get disrupted when the suppliers hear about this."

"And you are telling me instead of him because I just look so much like Yushin? Or because..." Amishiq paused, fishing for an answer.

"Commander Yushin is scary intense, Sir! Thought you might tell him, sir!" Bolin interjected. His arms twitched at his sides as if he wanted to salute.

Amishiq put her glasses back on as she leaned forward in her chair. "For the last time Bolin, we're civilians here. Or at least we should be, I don't know what we actually are."

She let out a heavy breath. "Well, I'll tell him. At least the Fire Nation delegation got here yesterday with our check so we can put in our airship payment to Future Industries before we have to deal with these new contract rules."

She then held up one of several newspapers on her desk and mimed reading it as she was actually smirking at Aoto. "Aoto, I bet that delegation loved you. There's a quote. 'Of course Fire Nation firms are going to do better'. I'm surprised they didn't drop a few extra zero's on the Harmony Celebration gift as a tip."

Aoto was chagrined but defensive. "Ah, I see you get the National Times. Yes, Chao has already, eh, spoken to me about that. But unfortunately for me I do not have time to get all your feedback on my performance as I am currently scheduled to head off down to Future Industries and tell the Miss herself that all her other contracts are going to have to go through blind bidding from now on. At least I can say we finally are ready to take delivery on that airship she has slaved over on personal design."

Then Min knew what it was she should have realized before.

She blurt out, "No, you can't. The airship that arrived this morning is... oh." Min had begun her interjection confidently, buoyed by the spirit of banter that was the order of business for this building and her excitement at finally connecting the dots, but it very quickly became clear that all the important people here had forgotten that she was in the room. Even Aoto's assistant who had not said a word looked at Min in astonishment that she was speaking.

Aoto turned to Min. "Um, what?"

Amishiq looked down at her desk as though she expected to have some file on this new girl sitting there. "Aoto, this is Mei."

"Lin," Bolin corrected.

"Neither," Min sighed in recognition of what was by now a futile effort.

"Yeah, I know her," Aoto said to his colleagues, "I've been seeing her all over the place today. In the entry hall, and with Chao, and now here. It's like she's haunting the place. Has anyone one tested the theory that she is a ghost? I mean we got this land handed to us for free, is there any chance there was there an ancient nomad burial ground on the premises?" He chucked faintly at his own joke.

Bolin shook his head in full seriousness. "No she's solid, I hit her in the face earlier and caught her after pushing her down the stairs." He paused. "Accidentally. And anyway I don't think ghosts are actually involved with all the spirit portal stuff. Although, I suppose I never directly asked Korra that." He tapped a finger on his chin as he considered this.

Amishiq said, "I think he was being facetious Bolin, although I will admit I do wish we could adopt your direct approach to spiritual issues more often."

"You can't pay for the Future Industries Airship!"

Min found herself panting slightly as sudden silence spun around her. Her exclamation had come out quite a bit louder than she had planned. Outside the office, the sound of typewriters had stopped as well. She felt her cheeks start to burn with the sudden and intent attention as she clenched her hand in fists at her side.

"Well, for a ghost she's got some lungs on her," Aoto said, blinking. "Now miss, what is this about us not getting an airship?"

"Wait, that can't be. We already paid," Bolin broke in. "Chao told me that Asami's airship had already arrived."

"No, it can't have," Amishiq said. "I've seen our coffers and without the Harmony Anniversary donation we can barely make the minimum downpayment on something like that. Future Industries does not hand out product without seeing cash, no matter who the Miss is to the Avatar. But I thought the Fire Nation's donation money should have been logged by today."

Aoto nodded. "Chao told me it had come in last evening."

This had been enough for Min. Everyone was already ignoring her again. She supposed by now she was an old hand at breaking into conversation.

She took a deep breath and spoke loudly. "The gift came in, but it wasn't money. It was an airship. The Fire Nation gave you an airship." For all the talking these people did it did not seem that anyone else had put together what they had been told.

Bolin nodded his head kindly to her, "No you see, the Fire Nation is giving us the money to buy an airship. They are not the ones who are actually..." He trailed off as he noticed Aoto muttering to himself with a horrified look on his face.

"The contribution came in and it wasn't what we were expecting," he said in the tone of someone quoting their own execution order. "Chao told me that this morning. I had been thinking there was some issue with the amount but..." He trailed off.

Amishiq tossed her glasses across her desk. "We told the Fire Lord we needed money to buy an airship so she bought us an airship."

"And I am in the paper today talking about how it is better to just hand contracts to the Fire Nation." Aoto said vacantly, still in a horrified daze. He looked out the open office door into the vague distance. "Oh, the Miss is going to kill me. We have a special contract with her for a custom design which we can't pay for and now she is going to kill me."

Bolin sucked air through his teeth in a nervous grin as he began to slide towards the door. "Er, well I guess I will just let you get on with that errand, Aoto. I'll come around later to show you what I have on the Chin proposal. Come on Meilin, I'll keep showing you around until Chao needs you!"

Min took a step at the sound of this new version of her name and was instantly blocked by Aoto's arm. "Oh no," he said. "If this little herald of my unhappiness is just getting a tour of the building then she is coming with me instead. Maybe Miss Sato will feel merciful if there's an outsider in the room."

Amishiq seemed to be darkly enjoying Aoto's discomfort. "I'm pretty sure there is some regulation against using new hires as ablative armor, but like I've been saying we're semi-civilians here so I suppose things might be a little looser. Welcome aboard miss, I look forward to working with you if you return."

...