"Hey, Mom." Bolin's head popped into Lin's office, soon followed by his body. His hands were placed firmly behind his back which made the mother raise an eyebrow suspiciously. Between the body language and the devilish grin on the boy's face, it was obvious that there would be no good coming from this. "Look how big your little friend is getting." He brought his hands around to reveal a tigerpup, nearly doubled in size since the day she dropped him off at the police kennel to be trained as an attack tigerdog. "You named him, I take it?" He guessed, bringing the pup in close to his chest and scratching him behind the ears, "Did she name you, Rabeid? I think she did."
"How'd you guess?" She asked with as much sarcasm as she could muster, complete with crossed arms.
"It just sounds like something you would name an animal." He shrugged and attempted to look casual, but a bit of worry came through, like he wasn't sure if he was going to regret what was about to come out of his mouth, "I mean, you are a spiteful woman." He cringed, waiting for a backlash that, to his surprise, never came. It was the truth, how could she possibly deny it, "First, you name your own sealhound 'annoying'-"
"He is." she cut in. The dumb hound had to be by her side nearly every waking moment, he had to sleep at the foot of her bed despite having a bed of his own. He always wanted to put his head right in the middle of her book when she tried to read...what better name for such an annoying mutt than a word that means 'annoying'?
"Then you go and name this little guy 'explode'. And like I said, your full of venom, so I gotta wonder what this little guy did to earn his name." So that was it, the boy was on a fishing expedition. Well, he wouldn't be getting any information from her. The people who were close to her and Korra knew that something amiss with their alibi for that day, that there was more to the story than they were leading on, they just had no idea what could possibly be worth hiding. And Lin planned on keeping it that way.
"He was at the construction site and survived the explosions." She lied flawlessly. True, she didn't like to waste time with lies, but she had to satisfy the boy's curiosity before he went and convinced the avatar to blab. If the truth ever got out, she'd never live it down, "Tǎoyàn smelled like burnt fur for a week."
"Then why didn't you name him something that means 'survivor' or something?"
"Have you forgotten that we're supposed to have a family portrait done today?" She decided to ignore the question completely, "Why are you playing with that mutt?"
"Because he's cute." He laughed as the pup licked his face, "Hey, why didn't you name him 'Lucu'?"
"Would you be frightened of an attack tigerdog named 'Lucu'?" Any police animal with a name like that had better be mean or his own handler wouldn't be able to take him seriously, "Now take him back to the kennels before he gets those pretty cloths Asami dressed you in all dirty. And take Tǎoyàn with you."
"Okay." Bolin had no choice but to surrender the battle. But he wouldn't surrender the war, one day either his mom or his friend would make a mistake, and when that day came, he'd be there to get the info out of them, "Come on Tao. I'll meet you front, Mom."
She finished the last few lines of the form before heading out. The other two in the picture would be meeting them at the photographers before Mako's second shift. The kid was pulling double shifts to earn vacation time for some water tribe festival that Korra wanted her team to attend in three months. She hoped it was worth it, taking on so much work time wasn't easy for a rookie, that she knew first hand.
"About time, Boy."
"I didn't take that long, Mom." He said as he reached around to pull two metal ovals out of the pouch on the back of his belt. A piece of equipment Lin had given him in case of an emergency, when he stretched the metal and formed it to the bottom of his boots he could travel along the zip lines as easily as an armored officer. Bolin attached them, then they used their arm/waist cables to pull themselves up on the lines and,"Alright, we're off."
As they sped along the lines, she felt her son's weight shift on the cables and she screeched to a halt. The first conclusion, that took only millisecond for her to come to, was that he'd fallen off. He might be hurt and she needed to help. But half a second after she stopped, she noticed a shape on the bottom of the cable. The boy was moving upside down, passing her, before bringing himself upright without breaking his pace.
"Sorry, Mom!" He called back to her, "You were going too slow!" Slow? She wasn't slow at all! This had to be a challenge, and she'd never been one to turned down a challenge.
"I'll show you who's slow!" Lin shouted as she raced to catch up with him, then leaped into the air, sailing over him then back down to the metal. When they came to an intersection, he cut the corner, jumping from one line to the other and regaining the lead.
"Nice try!" His gleeful cry turned sour as his mom's cables shot from behind him, coiling around balcony bars on either side of the street, turning her into a giant a sling shot. Now he was in second place again. But he had another chance to get ahead. He lashed out his metal and lifted to a rooftop in hopes of taking a short cut, traveling over buildings instead of around them.
"Boy!" Lin growled. That was a dirty trick, but that was fine. If he wanted to take this little race of the beaten path, she'd show him just how rough it could be. Racing around the buildings, and getting on the rooftops, she joined him in leapfrogging across the buildings via cables, jumping over alleyways, swinging across an empty lot, dodging a young couple taking in the beautiful skyline,
"Pardon us!" Bolin said as they rushed past the startled pair, "That's a pretty dress, Miss!" he added for good measure as they bounced away.
"Give it up, Boy!" She turned her head back to him with a smirk, giving him one last chance to back out.
"Never!" He would catch up again, he knew he would. At least he thought he would. There came a point within the next few steps where appearances had deceived him. Where there looked to be a sturdy place to put his feet, but they hit nothing but air. Now the young metalbender laid in the fishing net, completely stunned. What had just happened? His mom ran right here. On further inspection he saw a narrow, easy to miss flag pole that she must have stepped on before she jumped. So now there he was, in an ocean food restaurant's display net, looking like an idiot while his mom got back on the zip lines and sped away.
"Hey, Boy." Lin greeted with a smirk the kid as he trudged up the photo studio's steps, Asami was brushing her windblown hair against her will and Mako was leaning against the door frame. "You stop for supper or what?" He pointed a finger at her accusingly,
"That wasn't fair." Maybe not, but it was funny. As she was about to say that out loud, the door opened and an assistant ushered them in. The photographer took one look at Bolin with his wrinkled cloths and messy hair and set off to work. Grabbing a brush off the table, he styled the hair in a matter of a few quick brushes.
"That jacket," He frowned disapproving, "I can't do anything with. Now we have a few options." He rambled on and on about the ways they could take the focus off Bolin's jacket in the picture. Lin and Mako slowly began to get more and more annoyed. Neither wanting to spend too much time there. But it was Lin that broke first,
"Just take off the jacket, Boy." And that's exactly what he did, along with his brother, mother and best friend. They would all be in their undershirts for the picture...whether the picky camera guy liked it or not.
"Well, I think it'll turn out to be a good picture." Bolin said optimistically as they walked out of the place, while those of the group who weren't wearing armor buttoned their jackets. "How many copies did we order?"
"Five." Asami, who'd been put in charge of the arrangements, answered, "One large framed, and four small lose copies."
"Oh, great."
"Well, I gotta get to work." Mako announced, "Bye." he got a 'goodbye', a kiss, and a 'be careful' before he left.
"He was pretty quiet today." Bolin noticed. And he'd been kind of moody, too, or moodier. He only smiled for the camera after Lin whispered something about knocking the photographer on his ass before it was over.
"I don't know what's wrong." Asami admitted, "He said he was 'fine'."
"Don't take it personal. He probably had a long day." Lin explained, "And now he's going to have a long night."
"I hope that's all it is."
"Well, what do you guys say to some food. That ocean restaurant smelled pretty good." There was a laugh and an eye roll, but they went to the place that had a net under it's sign and ordered their suppers. They were having a normal meal with normal conversation when a familiar, and yet unfamiliar, voice reached Lin's ears,
"Hey, Maiden!" A man walked up to her, arms open. She recognized his face instantly, even if time had changed it. And his missing hand, the right one, dissolved whatever little doubt was left.
"Qiu." She allowed him to hug her, for old time's sake, and got another one from his wife, Jin.
"Haven't seen you in years."
"About twenty." Lin nodded. She should have kept in touch, but could never bring herself to look him up.
"Let me introduce you to my girl, Nuo.", a kid in her late teens was pulled over in front of the chief, "Nuo, this is my old Captain, Lin Beifong. Chief, this is my kiddo, Nuo."
"Nice to meet you." She shook the teenager's hand, she nodded, but kept quiet.
"This is my boy, Bolin. And this is Asami Sato." polite greetings were exchanged between them.
"Yeah, yeah. I heard you took in kids from Xun."
"The man has a big mouth."
"Always did."
"Pull up a couple of chairs, Qiu."
"Why not?" He pulled a chair from a nearby table and sat down, "Now when you get into the force, Nuo, this woman right here is going make your life a living nightmare."
"I don't paid to make friends."
"Good thing, too." He laughed, making her smile, "You'd fired in a week."
"Still the team goof, I see." It was good to know that the loss of his hand hadn't changed him in spirit, at least. He still smiled the same way he always did and said,
"That's not what you used to call me, Capt."
"No, but your wife is present." And calling an officer, even a former officer, a dumbass in front of their spouse and child was beneath even her.
"Aw, aren't you nice."
"Don't spread that around." She sneered, "I'd hate to have but the fear of Kyoshi back into my officers."
"Still send people to training sessions?" He knew all too well what the Chief of Police did to put fear into subordinates.
"Still 'randomly select' people," Lin corrected, "yeah."
"Ouch. When that happens," he nudged his daughter, "just remember it's for your own good."
"Still sucks though." Bolin piped in.
It was raining that day so Hiroshi and Baatar spent their time going over blueprints for his new lift system and make any necessary changes in the architect's personal office. After all his visits to the house, both work and non-work related, he'd managed to get to know the family and become a close friend of it, so when three children ran into the room unannounced, he wasn't surprised.
"We'll protect you, dad!" Wei said, getting between his dad and the door with little fists raised along with his twin. Opal grabbed her father and him by the hand and pulled them further into the office to hide behind a drafting table.
"We'll be safe here." She told them reassuringly.
"From what?" The father played along with the game. Hiroshi wanted to sigh and shout at the same time, he could see himself and Asami playing similar games not so very long ago...before the firebending street rat convinced her to turn against him.
"She's coming." Wing said bravely. The room was silent. The children stayed true to their characters, maintaining serious faces as they heard footsteps coming towards them. Finally, a figure appeared.
"I. Am. MELON LORD! MWHAHAHA!"
Thud.
"Hiroshi?! Su, call a doctor!"