The Forgotten Child

Onesmartcookie78

Summary: "You're," she pauses, "you're orphans? I didn't know you were—"

"You didn't know we—what, did you think we just like hanging around in alleys?"

Or: Lin and Tenzin have a child, but Tenzin doesn't know it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Legend of Korra or Avatar: The Last Airbender, but I do own any of the characters you don't recognize

A/N: So the only reason this fic is getting updated right now is because it's received a lot of attention on AO3. If you have any interest in this fic, please review!

SARRI

She sits in a metal room in a metal chair. It takes a lot of effort for her to refrain from fidgeting; her fingers occasionally twitch with the urge to pull at her hair or tap on the tabletop as she waits. Finally, finally, Lin enters.

"Sarri," she starts, and her voice is completely neutral, devoid of any of the barely-restrained emotion, the relief, that had colored it earlier when Sarri had found her on the docks, looking almost defeated.

"Yes, Chief?"

"I want you to tell me what happened," Lin says, and settles into the chair across from Sarri. "From the beginning."

And so Sarri launches into the tale of how she left home yesterday and got lost, how she met Mako and Balin (Bowen?) and how they had walked her home. She neglects to mention that Mako had charged her for his services, and that he had been the one to tell Shady Shin where the Beifong household was. She's not entirely sure why she leaves these details out, but she does. Instead, she tells Lin about how Shady Shin had knocked on the door and she'd assumed it was Pana and had taken a blow to the face as a result. Lin listens with rapt attention, her expression growing gradually darker as Sarri explains the circumstances behind how her cage door had come to be open in the first place.

She also leaves out the part where she airbended.

But this doesn't deter Lin. "What happened to those two men?" she asks as Sarri concludes her official statement.

Sarri tries to remain calm. "I don't know," she replies, and she's not even lying. She doesn't know what had happened, she doesn't know how she did it, and she's not sure wants to.

Lin frowns and her gaze is scrutinizing. "So, you didn't see what happened to them?" she asks, eyes narrowed.

Sarri shakes her head.

And, perhaps because the alternative would be that her eight year old daughter had killed a man, Lin believes her, doesn't even bother to use her seismic sense to try and tell if Sarri is lying.

All Sarri can hope is that Rei keeps their promise.

After a few more probing questions, Sarri is allowed to leave the interrogation room. Lin instructs her, under no uncertain terms, to stay in the station and wait until she's ready to go home, so Sarri soon finds herself sitting in the waiting room, virtually alone save for the officer manning the front desk.

She's still sitting there when she catches a familiar flash of red out of the corner of her eye. She swivels in her seat and makes eye contact with the boy who betrayed her. Mako.

"You," she hisses at the same time that he says in what sounds suspiciously like relief, "You?"

Her feet carry her on autopilot over to him, and before she can think better of it, she's slapped him across the face. The sound echoes in the large room, ringing loudly in the quiet space, and he very slowly turns back to face her.

"I deserved that," he acknowledges, bringing a hand up to his cheek. "And for what it's worth, I'm sorry."

"You're sorry?" she asks in disbelief. "I got kidnapped because of you."

He winces. "I didn't know—I didn't think—"

She shakes her head. "Didn't think?" she says through a snort and is more conscious than ever of the way her breath tickles her upper lip with more force than is completely necessary. Is this what it means to be an airbender? To be constantly aware of the air and the way it brushes against her? As if to prove her point, she feels the way the air shifts around him as he exhales heavily.

"I'm sorry," he says. "I didn't know he wanted to kidnap you. He told me he just wanted to steal a few things and I didn't think—I'm sorry."

They're silent for a few seconds as she digests what he's said. She doesn't forgive him. How could she? But then a thought occurs to her. "What are you doing here?" she asks suspiciously. "How come you're not with Shady Shin counting your cut?"

He runs a hand though his dark hair, aureolin eyes downcast; and yet there's something in them, something honest and self-aware that she's not quite sure she can trust. "Shady Shin had mentioned the docks before," he starts, and his hand lifts to begin fidgeting with his scarf before his fingers curl into fists instead, as though he's desperate not to show weakness. "I went to your house and you weren't there," he continues, and his eyes lift to catch hers. "And I realized that you must have been taken."

She blinks a few times. "You went to my house?"

Red flashes over his cheeks and spreads rapidly up his ears. "Bolin would have killed me if you got hurt!" he says defensively. "Besides, I knew you couldn't defend yourself."

It's her turn to blush. "I—I can too!" she says, and it's no longer quite the lie it would have been previously.

He scoffs. "You're a non-bender, aren't you? That's why Shin took you. They only take non-benders."

She squeezes her fists to keep from doing something rash. Her shoulders slump. "I am," she acquiesces.

He nods as if to say, "that's what I thought," and runs a hand through his hair again. "Look, I've got to go," he finally mumbles. As an afterthought, he adds, "Stay out of trouble."

And with that, he's gone.