2). A leaf under the wind(part 5)
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"So, is that all you need to know?" Lin close the earthbending scroll she used to explain to Tenzin. The airbending Master nodded to his wife who sat across from him at the table in their bedroom.
"Yes. I think I now understand what was troubling Korra in her training."
"And it was...?"
"She not only has an earthbender's attitude, but she seem to unconsciously execute earthbending movements when she ran past those gates." Tenzin pointed at his airbending scroll. "The heart of airbending is to evade an opponent, while the earthbending, as you told me, is all about standing your ground and defending. It was like throwing a rock into the gates instead of a leaf."
"Seriously? You've studied the entire day just for this?" Lin frowned, pinching her nose bridge. "I think I could have guessed it immediately just by looking at her."
"Guess? I can't 'guess' anything, Lin!" The airbender slammed his fist on the table. "This is the Avatar that I'm teaching. I need to be absolutely certain about everything I teach her! And you..." Tenzin rose his voice, but then stopped when he saw Lin's frown disappear. His wife shifted her expression to a stern an almost emotionless face.
Every metalbender cop knew this face. It was the face the chief would made when was she about to unleashed her fury at someone. A calming volcano before the catastrophic storm. For the press, lawyers, even other council members, this was the last face they saw before Lin literary shouted them out of the police headquarters, along with whatever idiotic business they brought to bother her in the first place. After all, the chief of police did not tolerate disrespect.
Lin stood up, walked around the table to Tenzin's side. He putted down his scroll, closed his eye, and said in a small voice: "I'm sorry..."
His words were cut short when he felt a pair of warm arms warping around his shoulder.
Lin dropped to her knee and hugged her husband comfortingly. She planted a soft kiss on his temple, easing the tension out of Tenzin's body.
"I forgot how much this means to you." Lin spoke softly. "Training the Avatar. You must feel a lot of pressure. Not to mention all the secrecy she asks us to keep."
"I am." Tenzin let out a sigh, losing himself in his wife's embrace. "I'm sorry I let that out on you, but I am the only airbender in the world who are capable of teaching the Avatar the element of air. The world doesn't allowed me to fail, Lin. And with what happened with her and the White Lotus." He felt another kiss on his forehead. "I can't repeat their mistake. Father gave me a chance to make things right by leading Korra here. Whether she likes it or not, Korra is my responsibility."
"Our responsibility." Lin corrected him. Her crude hand held Tenzin's cheek gently, made him turn to face her eye to eye. "Regardless of what I think about this whole situation, I'm not going to let you face it alone. So stop hoisting the whole world on your shoulder."
The airbender wondered if anyone would believed him if he told them how kind and comforting Lin Beifong could be. The chief of police of the Republic City, and only her family had have a privilege to witness her other side.
"Thank you,Lin." Tenzin kissed his wife on the lips. Lin returned the kiss as they lingered for a moment before she parted and stood up.
"You done enough for today. Go change. I'm gonna see the kids to bed before we retire for the night." Lin padded Tenzin on his shoulder and walked out of the room.
When out of her husband's sight, the chief's expression switched back to frown as she thought about their recent guest.
It's only been one day, too early to tell if this was a bad decision or not to let her stay. But the Avatar seem to stir up trouble in her family where there originally was none. Her husband worried himself with this new found duty, Ikki started to get overprotective towards Naga, Meelo was running around acting weird the entire day (from what the acolytes told her), and Jinora...
She ignored the image of her oldest daughter hugging the Avatar flashing through her mind.
Lin shook her head. That was a ridiculous thought. While she saw no reason why Jinora would want to associate with Korra, she shouldn't make a big deal out of it. That would sound like she was...jealous…
No! Not jealous. Concern. As a mother, she has to look out for her kids. Korra could be a bad influence on Jinora, or harm her in another way. It wasn't like Lin thought the Avatar would steal her daughter or anything...
The chief's thought stopped when she turned the corner and saw Korra in the dark hallway, looking around suspiciously, carried an unconscious body of Jinora on her back. The Avatar walked slowly like she don't want anyone to heard her.
A thousand alarms went off in Lin's head. She felt her mind set back to the early day of her career as a cop, the day she used the method 'cable first, question later.' Lin unconsciously move her hand, before she realized she didn't equipped her cable tractor, not even a small one.
Still, Korra heard that movement and turned back to Lin. The teen girl smiled casually like she didn't do anything wrong.
"Oh, officer. Good timing." She walked up to Lin, who, with only the curiosity in the girl's words that was stopping her from punching the Avatar in the face and taking her kid back. "Where is Jinora's room?"
"Why do you want to know?" Lin asked, but felt like she herself was overthinking the situation somehow. And Korra would agree, seeing how the Avatar raised her eyebrow as she answered.
"So I can take her to bed, of course. The little canary-dove fall asleep while I tell her story. Guess she'll ask me to continue tomorrow."
"Oh?" Lin lost her word. Feeling a little ashamed from jumping to conclusions that the girl was about to kidnap her daughter.
'Spirits, I'm becoming too paranoid.'
"It's alright, I can take her there myself." Lin held out her hand to grabbed Jinora, but Korra stepped away, frowning.
"You gonna wake her up, officer. Just point me to right direction, I can carry her." The Avatar blinked like she just figured something out, and sigh. "Oh, I get it. You think I'm gonna steal something from her room. aren't you?"
'I thought you gonna steal 'her' actually.' Lin thought, but decided not to voiced it. "I just don't want to bother you. You're our guest and..." the chief shook her head. Coming up with more excuses would only made her looked more pathetic. "Ok, just follow me." She cut the conversation short and lead the way.
"I promise I'll keep my hands where you can see them." Korra sing-songed with a smile. They walked only a couple of feet before Lin looked over her shoulder and asked.
"A canary-dove?"
"A cute nickname, fitting for an airbender, don't you think?"
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They soon arrived at Jinora's bedroom. Korra gently place Jinora on her bed without waking her, before stepping back to let Lin near the bed and adjust the blanket for the kid.
"She really likes stories, doesn't she?" Korra asked as she placed Jinora's notebook on her table.
"Got that from her father, he used to tell the legends or history of the Air Nomads, but she expanded her interest to all four nations."
"Seeing how easily she fell asleep while I told her about how princess Azula fought a swamp of moth wasps with lightning strike, I guess she got used to you telling her a bed time story."
Lin paused for a moment, looking down at her sleeping daughter with a small pang of guilt in her chest.
"Not really..." Lin wasn't sure what made her said this instead of just keep quiet. "I have neither the time, or the stories to tell her. She usually just read them from our library."
Korra frowned with that answer. "Not even 'The three little hybrid pigs' or 'The little firebender riding hood'? What kind of a mother are you?"
"Being chief of police, I have a responsibility to the city and its citizens, Kairi. My children understand if I don't have time for them as much as they want to." Lin narrowed her eyes. Just like in the morning, Korra unintentionally got on her nerves. "But I suppose I can't expect a runaway thug like you to know the important of my duty." The women readied herself for any witty comeback she thought the girl would throw at her.
To her surprise, Korra just stared quietly at her, before glancing at the sleeping Jinora, then back to her without a word.
Lin wasn't sure if this reaction meant anything, she opened her mouth to spoke when Korra smirked with, if she did not mistake, a sad grin.
"No they don't."
Lin cocked her eyebrows. If that was a comeback, it was both too simple and too complicated.
"The kids might say they understand, they might feel like they understand, they THINK they understand, about why their parents didn't have time for them," the Avatar continued, her tone was as serious as when she told Tenzin about her past years. "But...do you know what they actually heard in their head?"
Korra walked out of the room in a slow pace, a gesture for Lin to continued this conversation outside Jinora's room. Lin followed and close the door as they stood in the hallway.
" 'My parents chose something over me.' " The chief was almost taken aback by the unexpected statement. " 'It might be important. It might be for the greater good. But they chose it over me.' "
Lin rolled her eyes as she replied "Kairi, you overreacting-"
Tonight, the metalbender witnessed the disturbing side of the Avatar. When Korra stepped forward and close range at her, in the blink of an eye that even the trained police like her couldn't react. If this was an attack, Lin would have gone down for the count as easy as her captain.
But on the other hand, Lin might preferred this to be an attack, thing would be less...awkward.
Korra was now stood so close that she could felt the girl's breath as the Avatar locked sight with her. The girl's pupils open wider with a glimpse of darkness creeping behind her eyes. Korra's right hand gripped her shoulder, her left...was touching Lin's scar.
Mocha fingers caressing the scar on her face. Brushing gently. Rubbing soft enough that Lin almost couldn't feel her fingers, that, or it was because she was too stunt to prosper the situation probably.
" 'When the chips are down, I may not be the first thing they tried to save.' " Korra continued her speech. She then leaned even closer to whispered at Lin's ear. Her breath licked on the chief's neck.
"Will you abandon your child for the sake of pride and duty?"
Through the darken eyes, Korra reflect the memory from long time ago.
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As those men in white and blue uniform escort her into the compound, the four year old girl looked over her shoulder to saw her parents talking to an old man that seemed to be the leader of these people, judging by his uniform. Her mother look worried, while her father look like he was angry, but was too afraid to voice his opinion on the man.
As the gate of the compound closed behind her, so began the first crack in the bond between her and her family.
...Korra remembered the conversation she had with her parents at the rare occasional that they came to visit her...
"Mom. Dad. I hate it here. I wonna go home with you."
She couldn't recalled exactly what was their answer, but it was along the line of 'endure', 'for the best' and 'You are the Avatar'.
...Years had passed, and the soft heart became stone. Sobbing eyes dried out with a silent hatred. No more conversation, no more pleading, no more pep talk. At the age of ten, Korra could barely remember the last time her parents came to visit her...a year or two years ago.
'They abandoned me.'
Korra sat alone in her room at night. Her mind burned with cold anger as she watched the snow fall outside the window.
'My parents abandoned me. They said this was their duty. My duty, as the Avatar.'
The girl pick up the picture of her parent that they gave her in her earlier at the compound. She flicked her finger, and burn the picture to ash without even looking at it for the last time.
'Soon, I shall return the favor.'
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"What is wrong with you!?"
Lin shoved Korra away as she felt a goose bumps ran crazily all over her neck. Did she just got sexually assaulted by the Avatar?
Korra's eyes slowly went back to normal. Still, she only smiled wittily and answered like it was no big deal. "Sorry, officer. You... get on my nerves. That's all."
"Is this!-" Lin was about to yelled, but then she realized that they standing in front of Jinora's bedroom, so she lowered her voice to a hiss. "Is this some kind of prank, Kairi!? Because it's definitely not funny!"
"Look. I kinda lost myself when it comes to family matters, okay? I'm sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable."
Uncomfortable would be an understatement. Lin tried to gave the girl the benefit to the doubt that she just messing with her. It better than the alternative that the Avatar was a psychopathic weirdo who could go around harassing acolytes on the island.
"Do that again with...anyone, and I'll have you thrown out of my house!" Lin pointed at Korra before she walked away, but the Avatar sprinted after her.
"Come on officer. Don't be mad."
"I'm not mad."
"Ok. Don't be your normal self." Lin wondered if there will be a bad consequence should she backhanded the Avatar on the face right now. "And wouldn't you at least think of what I just said?"
"I'm not going to waste my thoughts on a runaway's philosophy."
"Such a close mind." Korra finally caught up with Lin. They walked side by side through the hallway, out in the garden. "Look, all I'm saying is that you really should spend more time with your kids. That is what a mother should do regardless of her career."
"I don't need advice of how to take care of my family from you." Lin still growling.
"Wouldn't you at least want to make sure that they will NOT grow up to be like me?"
They stopped dead in their tracks. Lin turned to Korra who changed her smile from wittily to sincerely, if a little bit playful.
"What? You think I don't know I have issues?" Korra said with a shrugged.
Lin carefully examined the girl, in case this was a set up for a punch line. But the girl even stepped back and raised both her hands to show that she wasn't gonna jump at Lin again.
"I really don't know what to make of you, Kairi." The chief answered after a moment of silent. "And that makes me hesitate to take you seriously, even when I feel like I should."
"Fair enough." Korra admitted proudly, she wasn't above noticing her own flaw. "Then, just hear me this. I would have had a much harder time deciding to run away from the South Pole..."
She paused to suck in a deep breath.
"...if I remembered just ONE goodnight kiss from my mother."
They fell silent once again, and for longer than a moment. For the first time Lin looked at Korra, and thought that there may be something more to this roguish-Avatar, for better or worse.
"I hear you." the chief nodded politely. "And we will see if I should listen to you or not."
Korra only smiled. The chief still seem suspicious, but at least she opened up a little.
The girl was about to depart for the night before they heard the voice of a radio. They walked past another corner to saw Meelo, Ikki, and Naga at one of the pavilion, sitting around the radio that the boy just finished increased the volume.
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"Ladies and gentlemen! I'm coming to you live from Republic City's Pro-bending Arena, where tonight the best in the world continue their quest for a spot in the upcoming championship tournament. Grab your snacks and grab your kids because this next match is gonna be a doozy!"
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"Oh yeah, the magazine said there's a big match tonight." Korra rubbed her chin. "I think it was a raccoon versus an octopus or something."
"A Fire Ferret. Their favorite team." Lin looked at Meelo and Ikki who didn't realize they were being watched.
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"This Azon's got moxy! She advances, fires two quick shots. Yomo is hammered back to zone three! Clock is winding down, can Yomo hold on? He's teetering on the edge of the ring now. The Fire Ferrets line up to strike! And they did it!"
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"Isn't it already past bedtime?" Korra turned to asked Lin. She really didn't care much for pro-bending.
"Since Tenzin won't allow them to go to the arena, I promised them that they can listen to the match of the Fire Ferrets when it comes up."
"Aww, you are nice mother after all," Korra chuckled as she watch Meelo jumped up with excitement about the match that she and Lin already zoned out.
"Azon did it! I knew she was the best!"
"Bolin did a good job too! Give him some credit." Ikki protested. She sat leaning her back on Naga, who similar to Korra and Lin, didn't care much about the sport. The beast just want to stayed close to her master.
"I bet Azon could single handily wipe the slate clean by herself! She just heldback to be polite to her lackeys."
"They are team mates! Not a lackey! Don't you dare talk bad about Bolin!"
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"Yeah, they are going to kill me if they know that I'm going to the arena without inviting them."
"That's why I told you to keep your mouth shut." Lin and Korra had a small conversationwith each other before they walked away and finally departed, leaving the two kids to shouting, cheering, and laughing happily in the night.
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...to be continue...
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Azon is my OC character. She was created specifically to replace Mako in the Fire Forrest Team. Since my Mako still working for the Triple Threat Triad.
YNI1
-Oh, in that case, No, Korra could not psychic bloodbend. She need to at least moving her hand, just like when she bend any other element.