Korra sat the boy up in the hood of a police car and wrapped him in a blanket. Since she had no authority to arrest people, she was put in baby duty while the officers cuffed the perps and tried taking statements.

She had protested, but only lightly. As much as she wanted to be there for the interrogation, see if any of the captured cracked and revealed Nilak's location, she didn't want to push it. She had disobeyed orders left and right during the operation and even if the tell off from Lin was yet to come, Korra was sure she was one complain away from being banned from all and every police procedure in the future.

So, for now, the boy had her undivided attention. And it seemed to be the case the other way around as well. Despite everything going on, the hectic energy and mass of police officers buzzing around them, Hakue had his limited attention focused on Korra.

"What are you looking at? She squinted at the boy, looking behind her back, guessing the bright lights of the police cars over her shoulder were the enticing things Hakue was fascinated by. But when she turned back around to face him it became clear it was her the boy was looking at. "What is it?" She tried getting a glimpse of her reflection in the car's windshield "Do I have something stuck in my- Oh no, wait up" the boy was done inspecting Korra and had moved on to experiencing. He reached forward to grab the subject of his interest, almost tipping off the car's hood in the process.

Korra scooped him up before that happened, but the sudden movement was enough to rattle him. And when Korra swiped the hair off his face, she found his eyes watering with tears. He started crying.

"Oh no, don't cry, I'm sorry" she held him in her hands and started rocking him up and down like she saw the lizard man do earlier in the warehouse, shushing him and patting him in the back, feeling out of depth.

But to her surprise, the boy stopped crying almost immediately. Not due to Korra's incredible soothing abilities, but rather because he realized what he wanted was finally within his reach.

The Avatar saw the spark of enthusiasm replace the tears in Hakue's dark green eyes as both of his little fists reached out and closed around Korra's hair loop, a chubby finger poking her in the eye in the process.

"Ouch, kid, let go" but Hakue wasn't about to give up his new toy. Instead he pulled on it, testing if it was attached to any sort of mechanism "Ouch!" said Korra, and laughter poured out of him: to his amazement, it seemed it was! Every time he pulled; sounds came out of the woman the toy was attached to. This only fueled his interest in it. "You are enjoying this, aren't you?" Hakue responded with a gleeful burst of laughter and another tug on her hair. Korra smiled and played along, guessing it was better than letting him cry,

The boy suddenly noticed the toy could come undone, and after a few tries, got a hold of the sheath that held the hair loop together, swiftly removing it with a pull. He inspected it attentively for a few moments, cross-eyed, before sticking it in his mouth.

"Oh no" Korra panicked "Hakue, give that back" she said, trying to pry the sheath out from in between his little incisors. The action was promptly reciprocated with an angry screech. "I'm sorry, but I am not gotta let you choke" the boy seemed more than happy to choke if it meant having his toy back. He began crying again, his cheeks red for indignation.

Korra tried shushing him, uncomfortable with the looks she was getting from the police officers around her. She even caved and tried giving Hakue a non-choking hazard strand of hair. But the damage was done, the boy wasn't standing for the injustice of his toy being taken away. He kept crying his head off and Korra looked down at her feet, an idea popping in her head.

"Prepared to see something cool, Hakue?" Korra switched the screaming baby to her left arm and picked up a pebble with earthbending with her right, making it dance around the boy, successfully diverting his attention to the new moving thing. It wasn't long until he was no longer crying and reaching for the pebble.

It kept him busy for a little while, but soon Korra started feeling a competing force working against her bending. She looked around trying to spot the agent pulling on the pebble, but every earthbender nearby had their hands full. Hakue, on the other hand, seemed oddly focused on the pebble. She thought it over for a moment before letting go.

The pebble instantly ended up on Hakue's grasp. And then, he tried shoving it in his mouth.

"Oh for Raava, that backfired" she muttered to herself, yanking the pebble away before he could swallow it "No small pieces of earth around you, then" and before the boy could complain about yet another toy being taken away, Korra proceed to blow a gust of wind around him, tussling his hair. He looked at her, surprised, his mouth forming a small 'o'. Korra chuckled and did it again, and then again… and again. They were still going at it when Lin approached them.

Korra straighten up in her presence, preparing herself for the scold of the century. But when Lin just stood there besides them, silently in her thoughts, the bags under her eyes more pronounced than usual, Korra was compelled to be the one to break the ice.

"Hey…" she started, hesitantly "Good job out there. That was quick, wasn't it?"

"Yeah…" Lin hummed a concern tone to her voice "And easy" she added.

"I wouldn't say easy" Korra stopped airbending for a second, Hakue whimpering in complaint asking for more in a language that vaguely resembled English "We were prepared, we knew that building top to bottom, half of the police force was assigned to this mission. You overviewed the whole thing. Give yourself some credit" Korra resumed playing with Hakue.

"I don't know. Something doesn't feel right" she clicked her tongue "If the kids were so important for his end plan, why would he leave them so exposed? There were only five people inside, no radio to call for backup. They didn't even try fighting back. Some of them were benders even, yet they let it happen" a chill went down Korra's spine "It just doesn't make sense"

"What are you implying?" Korra stopped airbending altogether.

"I'm just saying not to get ahead of ourselves just yet" she said "We might have won this battle, but we still don't know what kind of war we are fighting"

"Chief!" someone called Lin over, cutting her joy-killing short, to Korra's relief. She waited for Lin to be out of earshot before whispering at the boy:

"Don't listen to the grumpy lady, Hakue" he had abandoned his playful mood, the day finally catching up to him. He rested his head on Korra's chest tiredly while she ran a hand through his hair "We got you out of that dump, that's a pretty big win, isn't it?" the boy looked up at her with fluttering eyes "Everything is going to be okay, you'll see" She kissed the top of his head, and with that, Hakue seemed to believe her, finally closing his eyes, ready to take a nap.

But because the universe liked making a fool of Korra, Lin appeared moments after, wearing an unusually wild expression.

"Hand that baby over, we need to go" she shouted at her, startling Hakue awake, who began to cry.

"What do you mean, what happened?" an officer appeared out of the blue besides her with a blanket, snatching the crying baby of her hands. "Wait" Korra muttered under her breath, looking him disappear inside a police car, squirming in the man's arms.

"Snap out of it" Lin appeared in front of her "Air Temple Island is under attack" color faded from Korra's face, her worst fears flashing before her eyes. Asami, Akemi, her friends, literally everything Korra cared about in the world was in Air Temple Island.

"Where is my staff?" she yelled at nobody in a shrill cry.

A/N: Hope the Hakue cuteness makes up for the cliffhanger.
If there even is someone reading these, and have any thought about it, please feel free to leave a review! I would really apprieciat it :D
Stay Safe!

-Typingmitten