Asami smiled a little to herself as she brought the mail in from outside and saw an envelope addressed to her from the United Forces Penitentiary.
Her father HAD hurt her badly by lying to her, trying to kill her friends, and then trying to kill her, but he was STILL her father. She had kept regular contact with him via mail, about twice a month both ways. He seemed almost pleased and more amiable when she wrote that she had broken up with Mako, so he had kept in touch with her.
She told him about how she had kept Future Industries running, how she had commissions for newer, better transportation for the police, and how she had forgiven him for what he had done, saying that she knew where he was coming from, but blaming ALL benders for the crimes of just a few was wrong.
By now, she felt that she had almost convinced him of the fact, and now she was waiting to hear back from him with this letter. She put her bills and other unimportant things down on the desk and hastily tore open the envelope to read it.
...she had no idea, none at all, that one could literally feel HATE from reading words.
Her father had seen the newspaper article about her and Bolin. He had cut the picture out, drew demon horns over Bolin's head, and inked out her face. In the letter, he'd said...such HATEFUL things. DISGUSTING things. Her hands were shaking and her tears had smudged the lettering by the time she was done with it, and it was all she could do not to scream and cry at the old wounds that her father had just ripped right back open.
"Knock knock," came Bolin's voice gods-only-knew-how-long later, poking his head around the corner into her office. His pleasant mood plummeted when he saw Asami bent over her desk, her face in her arms, her shoulders shaking with sobs. He walked over to her desk and put his hand on her back. "What's wrong?" he asked. "Why are you crying?" Asami shook her head slightly, saying nothing.
Bolin scowled, glancing down at her desk and seeing the letter and the cut-out article, reaching for it. Before he could take it, Asami snatched the letter and picture up.
"You dont need to see it," she said, wiping her eyes, her eyes flashing as she crumpled it up.
"Asami, what -"
"FORGET ABOUT IT!" She threw the letter into the fireplace with the other balls of paper she found not worth her time to light up later. "Just FORGET about it, Bolin!" She stood up and stalked out of the office. Bolin glanced at the fireplace before following her.
She spoke nothing of it for the rest of the say, and Bolin found it best not to bring it up again. She went to bed early from a massive headache, and Bolin spent a couple of hours lying next to her until he knew she was in deep sleep before silently slipping down to her office.
He picked around the wads of paper before finding the one she had just thrown away, then flattened it out as best he could before reading it.
If he was a Firebender, the letter, the desk, the whole damn office would be in flames by this point.
He stood by what he said before; Hiroshi Sato was a HORRIBLE father. A HORRIBLE excuse of a human being. A HORRIBLE waste of air.
He was only good for one thing, and one thing only at this point...
"You're leaving?!"
Asami watched as Bolin packed a couple of things into a rucksack before tossing it over his shoulder. "It'll only be for a couple of days, Asami...a week tops."
"But why?" Asami asked, nibbling her lip. Bolin gave her a comforting smile.
"An associate of mine in Fire Nation territory requires something of me," he replied. "I'll go, do my business, and hurry back." He gave her a quick kiss and walked out of his apartment with her. "I'll need you to cover for me, Asami...if anyone asks, tell them I'm in the mountains."
Asami nodded, rubbing her arms. "I will," she promised. Bolin gave her a quick kiss before hopping in the waiting cab and riding off toward the train station. She sighed and put on her helmet before riding back to her home to wait for Bolin's return.
Hiroshi Sato scowled as a prison guard led him non-too gently to the metal private visitation room, having said he had a very special and important visitor who wished to speak with him. Hiroshi thought that it had to be Asami, here, hopefully, to say she had renounced the other street rat brother. Yes, he MAY have been a little harsh in his letter, but she only needed to see his side of things.
"Right inside, Sato," the guard said, opening the door. Hiroshi stepped inside the very dimly-lit room, where he could see someone sitting at the table, their face hidden in the dim shadow. "Hiroshi Sato, as ordered."
"My many thanks," came a dark male voice from the shadowed figure. "Fifty-thousand yuans are already in your account. You'll get the other fifty when we're safely back in Republic City."
Hiroshi saw the guard give the figure a conspiring smirk. "You got it," the guard said, pushing Hiroshi inside and shutting the door behind him, locking it and leaving him alone with the stranger.
"Please," the stranger said, gesturing to the free seat. "Sit." Hiroshi's eyes narrowed, but he did as he was told, sitting down opposite the strange man, whose face was not only concealed by shadow, but also by a hood over his head.
"Who are you, and what do you want with me?" Hiroshi demanded. He thought he saw a hint of a smirk from under the hood.
"Me? Oh, I'm just an old acquaintance," the figure said, making a careless gesture. "And normally, I wouldnt even be bothering with you, as you're a weak, pathetic excuse of a man with no redeeming feature other than the fact that you sponsored my Pro-Bending team last year...but let's not get into that..."
Hiroshi's eyes widened with realization, and the figure smirked, reaching up to lower his hood, revealing his face.
"What's up, Sato?" Bolin said in his past blase tone, giving Hiroshi a winning smile.
"YOU!" Hiroshi made a move to stand, but Bolin's hands smacked on the surface of the metal table, which contorted into making makeshift cuffs that kept Hiroshi's hands and forearms in place.
"Nuh-uh-uh, none of that," Bolin chastised, wagging a mocking finger at Hiroshi.
"You dirty street rat!" Hiroshi spat, still struggling to get his hands free. "You RUINED my daughter! You and that defiling brother of yours!"
Bolin snerked before letting out a bark of laughter. "Trust me, Sato, Mako did no such 'defiling' in any way. Uptight bastard's probably still a virgin. Asami was getting laid LONG before she even met us. But I digress." He took out a thin sheet of metal and lobbed it at Hiroshi, where it made a tight band around his head and mouth, forming a gag. "Now, down to business." Like a switch had been flipped, Bolin dropped the friendly and placating attitude, giving Hiroshi his full-blown, stone-cold glare of killing intent.
"You piece of lowlife shit," he growled, leaning over the table, looking Hiroshi right in the eye. "You miserable excuse of a father!" He clenched his hands, the metal around Hiroshi's hands tightening. "You think you could call Asami -your own DAUGHTER!- a mistake of your gene pool!? A slut!? A BENDER'S WHORE!?" His hands clenched tighter, and Hiroshi began crying out with pain from having the metal crush his hands and forearms.
Bolin glared at Hiroshi before unclenching and straightening his hands, the metal unclenching from Hiroshi's hands and shifting back into the table. Hiroshi's hands and forearms laid uselessly, broken, on the table's surface. "I got carried away, sorry about that," Bolin said, not sounding sorry at all. "I'm still getting used to Metalbending you see...and even my Earthbending reacts violently when I'm ROYALLY pissed off. I'm not going to use my bending on you again...because it's like I told those seven Equalists back in Republic City, I'm an equal opportunity kind of guy. If you're a bender, I use my bending..."
He walked around the table to stand next to Hiroshi and put a hand on his shoulder, his grip making Hiroshi's clavicle and scapula crack slightly, eliciting another cry of pain form the older man.
"...But if you're a pretentious non-bender like they were, I'll make you scream like a pig with my bare hands."