Check it out another chapter update! I personally enjoyed writing this chapter because of the imperfections that characters have is always intriguing to read about. As you know, or will know, not all of the siblings are perfect either just like Korra lol.

The ending of this chapter, however, is going to be furthered explained in the next chapter! :D So be prepared for that!

Well, I'm keeping my rambling right now short and sweet lol so enjoy this chapter! Let me know your thoughts, questions, reviews, concerns, judgments, etc! Thank you again! Until next time!

I own nothing.

Stale Rifts

Three weeks have passed since Rohan and the twins arrived to Republic City, and so far airbending training for the avatar is gradually progressing –slowly progressing. If there's one thing Kun enjoyed the most it was watching Korra trying to retain her short-tempered patient with every exercise before accidentally bending another element instead.

As much as Kun liked to be around the airbenders and the avatar, playing with the few flying bison at their stables, and skipping rocks on the surface of the water (really just bending the rocks to skip farther than impossible), the earthbender felt a bit disconnected. Not with his parents or his airbending siblings, but rather with his older sister Mika. When he and Sonam came back three weeks ago, Mika gave her greetings to him but ever since then her behavior towards Kun has been stoic.

Almost three years ago just a few days before Kun and his twin were preparing to get shipped off, the earthbender remembered back to the day when his sister had really talked to him. The time that Kun thought that all his sister lived for was working in the police force and didn't care about having moments of fun in her life.

And so their last encounter didn't end too well since they mostly fought over Kun's immature behavior.


Flashback: Two years and ten months ago

"Where were you? The team left about an hour ago."

Kun didn't need to turn his head to see whose voice it belonged to, because it the one that he's been trying to avoid all day. Instead the earthbender continued practicing using the metal cables that were belted to his waist. They were inside the training room; well Kun has been inside the training room the entire afternoon.

"Have you been here this entire time?" asked Mika, crossing her arms as she impatiently waited to hear from her brother for once. But the young officer stomped annoyingly over to Kun stood in front to block his view of the dummy he was practicing the cables on.

"Quit ignoring me, Kun," said Mika with furrowed eyebrows. "Why weren't you there with Team A for the mission?"

"They had enough officers to cover the area, so I switched out of Team A," responded the male earthbender.

"But you were there to lead and direct them!"

"Officer Chan had it under control, sis." Kun turned away from his sister, and stepped over to a metal table to take off the cables and set them on there.

Mika let out a frustrated sigh as she watched her brother's cool stance, as if he hadn't just left from a team of metalbending officers on their way to arrest the Agni Kai Triad group.

"What is your problem? You can't just leave your fellow officers behind like that!" said Mika, flinging her arms in the arm in front of her.

Kun released his own sigh, except this one was more tiredly and he felt done with all the orders, "constructive" criticism, and bossiness from his sister. Its been four months since he'd came on board to the Metalbending Police Department, and all the earthbender has been dealing with is shadowing his strict sister. Unfortunately, their mom couldn't always be there to teach Kun official ropes as a trainee herself since she had crazy amount of criminals to chase down, so instead Mika helped teaching him. Although, Mika was a lot more austere as an officer than at home which was something Kun couldn't completely handle all too well. They were also polar opposites; Kun enjoys entertaining and finding anything fun to do in the most boring situation. However, his sister carried upfront seriousness to her, is always very organized and precise, and doesn't find everything that her brother does amusing.

"Look, I needed some time to myself. All this week has been work, work, and work," said Kun before walking over to stand next to a pile of blocks. The earthbender took his stance and then started blending the blocks to throw them on the "criminal" dummies.

"What do you expect, Kun? It's your third week as a field trainee, and this is not an easy job."

Kun, still sending a few block punches, tries to concentrate on the target instead of engaging yet again another lecture with his sister. Mika huffs out another frustrated sigh, clearly aware of her brother ignoring her again, and looks at the rock blocks being thrown one by one before she positioned her own stance. Mika lifts her right leg up before stomping it in the ground, causing a certain spot of the earth to barricade Kun's target view and hits. Kun, finally paying attention to his sister, turned to look at Mika and gave her a scowled look.

"Cool it, sis," sneered Kun. "I don't need this right now."

"Seems like you listen better through action instead of words," challenged Mika as she repositioned her stance.

Kun furrowed his eyebrows, feeling his fist clench then unclench again. "I don't have anything else to say." There was no way Kun was going spar fight with his sister, not here and not now. As kids and in their preteen years they would practice sparring with one another, but with someone present there to make sure they didn't go overboard; since they both were pretty competitive as dexterous earth/metal benders. But Kun knew just how upset his sister was at him for today, and knew that sparring with another would lead into an actual fight.

Just as the younger earthbender was about turn around and leave for the exit, another rock wall came up to block Kun's direction.

"Well, I have a lot of things to say!" said Mika, with fists clenched and weeks of pinned up anger at her brother's arrogance and lack of dedication his graduation from metalbending academy then beginning police training. Kun was still young and immature to understand how much responsible he'd be getting when entering this sort of work field. Their grandmother, mother, and even herself have always taken this job very serious, so to have a family member not care too much about it made Mika feel disappointed. Obviously, their mom was often too busy as chief to notice Kun's uninterested behavior as a trainee, which left Mika to deal and witness it all from being with her brother all day everyday.

"Leave this alone. I'm done talking about it and done arguing with you all the time," said Kun. But Mika barricade the exit with more rock walls lining up from wall to wall. The earthbender finally looked at Mika again with his arms coming into position along with his fighting stance. "Fine. If that's the way you want to play… Your move, sis."

Mika looked disdained to her brother before bending four of the blocks to throw them towards Kun, but the younger earthbender easily deflecting by breaking through every single one of them with his hands. Kun bended a piece of the rock wall behind him and aimed it at his sister, but then Mika swiftly dodged it before running across the room to send more blocks aimed for the earthbender.

The two siblings were throwing punches with rocks and parts of metal at each other, some hits were too close for injury and others were easy to repel from. The ground of the training room erupted and the walls cracked from the amount of rocks hitting towards it. The spar fight lasted for as long as until an officer entered the room from the open space of no rock wall, then he called for backup. The officer stood there speechless as he watch the rocks being thrown and kicked at each siblings, and the destruction of the entire room that was left.

"Quit being bossy!" yelled Kun before dodging another boulder.

"Quit acting childish!" yelled Mika back before bending the ground up to deflect her brother's dodges. "Mom left me in charge with training you, but all you care about doing is goofing around!"

It wasn't until backup finally showed up after five minutes since the chief came from her arrest mission, and then looked completely shocked by what was going on. Lin ran over to her kids and stopped the fight with a single rock wall to block their hits.

"Enough! Both of you stop this instant!" demanded Lin. At each end both kids were heavily breathing out of exhaustion and looking venomously at one another. They looked wrecked from the battlefield they created before their mother ordered them out of the room, Lin made sure that they wouldn't attack each other again so she walked behind them looking visibly upset with both earthbenders.

Later that day Lin lectured Mika and Kun in her office about fighting and the major destruction that they left the training room. It wasn't until when they got home that the two siblings avoided each other by going to their own rooms, and never speaking to one another. Just a day before Sonam's departure for the United Forces, Kun spoke to his parents and told them that he wanted to join his twin brother as well.

"But what about the police force, son? Isn't that what you wanted to do?" asked Tenzin.

Kun shook his head. "No. It's not. I need some time apart to figure what I want to do. I think going with So to help out uncle Bumi and our cousins would be for the best right now." The young earthbender looked over to mother and noticed her reaction soften into a solemn expression. So Kun reached over to put his hand over his mom's hand in a forgiving matter. "I'm sorry if I've let you down, mom."

"No, sweetie," responded Lin, putting her free hand on top of Kun's in a reassuring matter. "If this is truly what you want then its fine with me. I don't want you to do something that doesn't seem to make you happy."

"I'm always happy to have seen you put away the bad guys and even Mika doing the same to make this city safe. On the other hand, for me… I don't see myself in the force."

"And that is completely okay," assured Lin with a soft smile to her son. "If this is something you need to do, then do whatever that is. Just remember that your father and I will always be there for you."

"Always there, by your side, Kun. With all of your siblings as well," assured Tenzin also.

Even though Lin was proud of how exceedingly well Mika and Kun have improved as skillful benders, and not to mention their devoted interest to help people by joining the police force… She felt a little bit sad that her son didn't see himself fit on the field like his sister. But Lin immediately thought about how it was his decision, and that if Kun needed some time apart to think about his future then that wass fine too.

This all happened while Mika hid behind the hallway entrance to the dining room, listening to entire conversation. She knew all along that her brother didn't care about the force, and it made feel upset about how he behaved in the last three weeks with her and the other officers. The young female earthbender scorn at the thought and quietly left back into her room.

On the day that Sonam and Kun were departing onto the ships for the United Forces, Mika had already said her goodbyes to Sonam before leaving for work that early morning. But she did not give her other brother a single farewell that day.


"Hey, mom," greeted Kun.

Lin looked up from reading the newspaper since she didn't have much time to do so in the morning. The chief was sitting down in the living room drinking a cup of tea, resting after a long day of raising gangs and directing troops out from around the city.

"Where's dad?" asked the younger earthbender.

"He is outside mediating with Korra and your siblings."

"Maybe the avatar is finally getting the hang of doing those mediating sessions with them by now," commented Kun with teasing lightheartedly.

"Actually, she tried convincing your father into going over to the probending arena again," informed Lin.

"The probending arena? No way! I have yet to drag So into coming to see a match with me," said Kun before looking around the room and noticing that someone else should have been off shift by now as well. "Where is Mika?"

"She said she had a few arrest reports to organize back at the station."

"Oh," said Kun, a little upset that he didn't get the chance to have a moment with his older sister. "You know when she will be back?"

"Most likely before nine o'clock," said Lin looking at the wall clock behind her.

Kun also looked at the clock and say that it was 8:35p.m.

"Right. I'll go check and see by the docks if she's maybe here yet." The earthbender steps out of the living room, leaving his mother thinking to wonder if the rift between them would ever be fixed since it reminded her a lot like the old wounds she had left with her own sister years ago.

The docks were just below in front of the island, and Kun stood and waited on the top still. He looked down over to the docks and actually saw the ferry making its way to the island. As soon as the ferry arrived to the docks, Kun squinted his greenish turquoise eyes a bit to see a figure step out of the boat who he immediately recognized was his sister. But then another figure stepped out of the ferry, and Kun didn't seem to recognize whom the male figure that was with his sister. The mysterious male figure looked about the same age as Mika, but the features were a bit difficult to determine due to the distance. Then the earthbender's eyes widened from utter surprise once he suddenly saw his older sister and the unfamiliar male figure lean into a chaste kiss, then the two of them pulling away before the male figure boarded back onto the ferry.

Kun quickly stepped away from clear sight of Mika, thinking about what he just witnessed.

Could it be that his older sister has finally found those few moments of fun in her life now, other than putting away bad guys all of the time? Maybe there was hope to finally also mend their rift.

Cliffhanger-ish…. Reviews? :)