Of seeking and finding
Of course I didn´t have enough shit on my plate! I really was short of turning into a sobbing, hysteric heap and just the highest amount of willpower kept the machinery named Lee Bei Gao going. I just was so done for that I wasn´t able to handle mentals stress on top of the strain I put my body through. I was nothing besides, skin, muscle and bones anymore. That couldn´t be healthy and most likely it was the main reason for my violent moodswings that were dangerously close to affecting my daily work. But not only was I still wandering the streets after work, no! There was something else that made my chest ache even more than the fact that only my stupid pride wouldn´t accept that Lin had died a dog´s death on a gods forsaken streetcorner. Or worse – that she simply wasn´t giving a fuck about people looking for her! No. Her mother had arrived in the city, Tenzin even sent his personal secretary to inform me. The orange clad alcolyte had been quite the snobby little prick, but he had told that Toph Bei Fong had returned from the wilderness. And she was sick on top of that!
It had delivered the fatal blow to my straw of hope. If not even she was able to find her daughter, using this strange dragon vein mumbo jumbo... Lin wasn´t there anymore. I wasn´t even able to cry about it, since it somehow gave me back some feeling of security. My heart wasn´t close to bursting anymore when I spotted a grey haired woman with wavy hair and so everything became a bit more bearable. Otherwise... I couldn´t go to airtemple island, where Toph had holed herself up. I couldn´t, since I swore a sun oath and a moon oath. I hadn´t kept my word to uncle Sokka and even if it was almost thirty years in the past I still remembered the day a puffy eyed Lin crashed at our place. Sokka had collapsed in his office, he had gotten a heart-stroke. It was almost funny that one of the greatest warriors of the century should die of something so trivial. Heart strokes usually befell fat old saps and dragon bone taking maniacs. Not men like my uncle! Lin barely managed to tell me that he wanted to see me before she started crying together with Yumi. I stormed off and it is close to a miracle that I wasn´t run over by a cart or an oostrich horse on my way to the Kantu hills. His house looked like usual, everything was neat and tidy and even in retrospective it´s an almost ghastly vibe that I felt as I entered though the wooden door that wasn´t even locked.
As I arrived in his bedroom Katara was sitting in a corner looking like a sucked dry plumato, with puddles of water staining the whole room with wet spots. And Toph was sitting right next to the sick councilman while sucking on a bottle of soju. She also blurted that „Sokka behaves like a prissy chick on her crimson days." it was a hollow masquerade she was putting on, even an idiot could hear the edge in her voice. The only one who wasn´t close to exploding was Sokka, who seemed utterly at peace, even if he already looked deathly pale. His voice was silent and not nearly as deep as I remembered it. He silently rose his voice. „Toph, Tara – would you give us some seconds?" even though it was a question it was ringing like a yelled order. Katara just stormed out of the room because she didn´t want her brother to see her crying and Toph huffed herself up to the size of a gorillagoat. She flipped the table, while insisting that she „never would take a fucking leave, when some fucker told" her.
Still she went out after Sokka repeated himself – we both could hear her muffled ranting in the next room, since she simply exited through a wall. The councilman gripped my hand, it felt cold and sweaty. „Please Lee, keep them together. I know I can´t do it anymore. Promise me!" he was so sad -I started sniffling. Then I swore – and Toph Bei Fong heard every word. She knew that I had broken my oath and that robbed me of any kind of face. Not that I would have dared to go to her if she had not listened. I owed her more than my mother, and of course I loved her. She was familiy, admittely a quite feisty and headstrong member! I slapped my forehead, just how long had I been staring on a halfway readied dumpling dough? Definitely for too long! So I added another couple of eggs to underline the flavor. Of course traditional dumplings are glued together by rice-starch and don´t contain a single egg, but I had thought that this always had been a mistake. Since dumplings were, by far, the most sold part of my menu I just had to do something right. I then started kneading in the large bowl. Luckily the exertion made any thoughts fly away and I could finish my preparations without spacing out much.
I had been told that Mako Chouw was attending his promotion ceremony today and I had the subtle gut feeling that I would get a lot of unusual customers. If somebody was promoted one had to invite the colleagues to something, and since Chouw wasn´t into drinking he would most likely invite to some kind of dinner. Even if he wasn´t spending much time in the barracks anymore it seemed that he still was his own man. He didn´t wear fancy clothes or owned a personal car, the boy was doing things right and I appreciated that. Of course nobody gave a fuck about my appreciation but that´s another topic. I then started packing my cart. I was wondering - Sokka hadn´t visited for almost a week, which was quite suspicious. Did she have a boyfriend again? I was marvelling, since the squirt had declared she was done with men almost a year ago. That roughly was around the time she got obsessed with the bloody golden fan! I sighed, hopefully she would move on from this obsession, I really wasn´t into my daughter getting beaten up on a daily basis. But what should I do – she was a grown woman. The moonshining destillery was working again, I could smell the alcohol, while the chimneys were smoking as if these guys were running some steam engine in there.
If they continued destilling that recklessly it would be only a short amount of time until their business was closed by the authorities, luckily that was no concern of mine. Aangs moonshine was quite exquisite though, a clear and pure barley product that had a subtle caramel taste, a sharp burning aftertaste as well as some kind of fruity note. Since I owned a noodle cart I of course did not sell hard liquor, but I had bought a little cask for myself. If one aged this stuff properly it would become quite the thing over the next twenty years. Sadly most moonshiners lacked the patience for doing so and that was the reason why everybody trash talked the moonshine´s quality! I then pedaled towards the usual business location and had to keep myself from dozing of in the traffic jam. Luckily the whole route had been ingrained into my body. Lao hadn´t set up his stall today, which was quite unusual. Maybe he was ill? If I had known where he lived I would´ve thought about paying him a visit after work, but actually I was happy I could excuse myself from this duty. The first customers arrived at once, cops like usual. „So Chouw started his office last week?" I asked the officers, who were some of my regulars. They wore strange, curly hair and matching frogcoats. „Y..Yeah." one of them responded while looking quite displeased. I had to stifle a smile.
I´d never known that these guys disliked Chouw. Well, they weren´t the brightest stars under the heavens, which was true for most cops. „Uppity bastard. Even swayed the Chief." the shorter one of them grumbled. „That asshole didn´t even say thank you to US..and WE showed him the ropes ya know Mr. Lee." the guy moped while munching his dumplings. „That´s the thanks for all the hard work we invested in this hopeless musclehead!" he sighed. I couldn´t imagine Chouw being the pupil of these guys.
„I feel you – that´s how children are. Ungrateful and cruel." I piped along the lines of most old people. I was astonished that these guys actually bought my act. They were close to getting all teary. „Yeah – back in our youth people knew what decency was, right pal." the taller officer lamented. I crooked a brow. The older man nodded in consent. „So that would make twelve shim and five." I responded. „Twelve shim! Come on Mr. Lee, we´re regulars!" „Yeah – you´ve gotta cut old served cops a bit of slag!" they started whimpering. I sighed being quite annoyed. These farts did it every day – just how stubborn could people be? They should´ve already found out that I wasn´t giving random discounts – especially not towards people who blabbered shit! They hesitatingly paid their food, which consistet out of two extra large servings of spicy hippo cow dumplings. Then they started eating and slowly moved away from my cart. Most likely the ceremony was held right now. Only some elderly people and construction workers showed up and ordered the cheap day´s special. The cops that usually had their lunchtime right now weren´t present. The office workers would have lunchtime soon enough and so I prepared myself for the daily assault that made the majority of my earnings.
I fired up all woks and began frying noodles, while steaming dumplings. And Indeed they came in chatting droves, like every day. The only one who wasn´t busy was the flameo noodle cart owner who stopped visiting this spot more and more. Quality food still mattered to most people, they just were becoming too lazy to make it themselves! I served three cups of roasted eelhound liver, spring onion dumplings and wondered how a single man wanted to eat all of this as Ping arrived. Of course Horichi, as he had titled his colleague and lover, was accompanying him. What exactly Horishima saw in the, at least, twentyfive years older man was something I couldn´t comprehend. Ping wasn´t a conservative but still he was OLD – just like me myself! She seemed quite happy when she was with him so I highly doubted this was about getting a good pension atop of the own payroll. They really had to be careful, fraternisation laws forbade such relationships but of course Ping loved playing with fire. „The usual?" I asked the two of them.
„Aye Lee. But make it a big serving – I´m starving!" Ping complained while holding his stomach in quite obvious way. Horishima rolled her eyes. „You´ve eaten two steamed buns while checking the reports. That´s more than my breakfast!" she added while wrinkling her brows at the slight outlines of a belly that showed through Pings uniform. I grinned a crooked grin. „As you wish Ping – I don´t feel like seeing your naked self, so dig in!" I just filled a large wooden bowl with the days special. Ping grumbled something inaudible. Today I was serving an „eight vegetable soup", which is a cheap meal from the lower rings. „And, what´ll you eat Horishi? A little cute ingwer bun?" Ping teased. Horishima wrinkled her nose, her armor was creaking and looked quite dusty. „No – I´ll have some dumplings. But please make it a small serving." she smiled at me. I just grabbed some of the dumplings out of the steamer. Since she hadn´t ordered a specific filling I would give her a colorful mix. Interestingly people liked my random dumpling mixes, most likely because nobody else was selling something like that. I actually was thinking about including some quite bad tasting dumplings, for example honeyed chickenpig with plumato – lychee paste. The lone thought made my skin crawl. Horishima helped herself to some chili paste and started eating. Her fingers gracefully gripped the dumplings and dipped them into the red paste. It was quite nice to watch her, whereas Ping was slurping and munching like some degenerate. I wasn´t some guy with prisitine table manners like TenTen but I neither was a mannerless sloth like Ping! „And, something´s up?" I asked Ping, who just shrugged and subtly shook his head. I wiped my nose, while still feeling sweaty in the heat of a passing summer. Of course there was nothing new concerning Lin. She was missing for more than a month and we all knew what that meant! I still asked Ping day after day and I wasn´t sure if it was annoying him or not. Of course there also was the danger of a revolution in the earthern nations that loomed somewhere behind the horizon, but I had to admit that I didn´t waste much thoughts on that topic. I´ve always been a man who took care of his people – I wasn´t like my father who drew a circle around himself that spanned nations. I wouldn´t have mingled in this stuff at all if these squirreltoad fuckwads hadn´t decided to endanger my squirt and kill my brother.
I knew what I could and what I couldn´t – making huge descisions definitely belonged to the latter cathegory! These whole hide and seek games about information weren´t something I understood properly, I had to leave them to Tenzin and maybe Miss Sato or Korra. The girl had delivered quite the speeches in the favor of democracy and now had taken off towards the earthern nations. I just caught some glimpses through the conversations my customers were having, since I neither had the money for a radio, nor the time for reading newspapers. „Nah – nothing new Lee. I mean..." Ping trailed off, he obviously had to control his urge to call me a sentimental, stubborn idiot. I appreciated that since I knew quite well how childish I was behaving. But I HAD to behave like that until somebody presented me a believable story about Lins fate, it was my duty as a friend. „Come on Sir, there are a lot of happenings that might be quite interesting for Mr. Lee." Horishima responded, she was a well organized and professional woman who hated unnecessary risks. So she didn´t call Ping by his first name and showed him the respect his position demanded. She also didn´t call me by my first name but used honorifics.
„So? Your ramen is coming up right now!" I stated while tending to an elderly ladies order. „For example it seems that the lead bit murder cases are finally solved." she responded with a wry smile. Indeed there had been no new murders after the Buffalo flat massacre. „Inspector Chouw also has found some new trails that connect a certain businessman directly with illegal weapon manufacturing." she responded. That were important news. My eyes bulged. „Does that mean he will be arrested?" I asked doubtfully. Ping snorted „Come on Lee – he´s a Ling!" I nooded. My pal was right. You didn´t arrest a Ling, no matter what he did! His clan was just too damn powerful! „So Chouw has worked his butt of for nothing. Touché." I quipped while clapping his hands. „Not necessarily, since the proof is currently under way towards the earthern unions parlament, where it shall be discussed." Horishima almost wispered. Luckily nobody else was standing close at the moment. I scratched my head.
I highly doubted that this changed anything. This parlament didn´t have much real power as it seemed. For fucks sake, these dudes couldn´t even keep their own provinces in check, so how were they supposed to take care of the Ling´s provinces on the wide plains? The plains of Chu da were one of the granaries of the Kingdoms and could not easily be replaced, which had made it´s nobles an extremely arrogant bunch. „Don´t think that matters for a shim, this whole new government is a farce if you ask me. I guess we´ve gotta found some sort of own military – enlarge the forces, things like than." I sighed having no idea if that was even possible. „Still as positive as a drunken crane-fish." Ping responded annoyed. „Well – at least life doesn´t disappoint me on a daily basis." I snarked back, I really wasn´t in a good mood.
„Well Captain Hungshu, we should be on our way. Duty calls anyways!" Hiroshima responded. She obviously didn´t like my abrasiveness. Not that I gave much about it, I too had a business to continue. Ping looked after her and she stopped after a few strides, just to continue with new found vigor and a slight tilt of her head. My old friend sighed. „Well um...I´ve gotta go Lee...ya know – women!" he stuttered blushing slightly and followed his love. I snorted, Ping being pussywhipped was as funny as Ping doing anything!
I continued prepairing dumplings, since some schoolkids were arriving for lunch. I was wondering if I should save up money for getting myself a delivery van. It should be quite easy to make a street kitchen out of it, since the cart was slowly getting too small for carrying the supplies I needed to pass an eight hour shift. Most streetkitchen had the same problems, which usually led to resupply rides in the early afternoon, but since I hadn´t reserved this spot at the republics trade office – I wouldn´t get it again if I went off for supply rides. I simply hadn´t the money to register myself as a trader, like most people in the business. I was handing out dumplings and noodles to some of my little custormers as I heard the flapping sound of shoes on the cobblestones. It was quite unusually that somebody ran around frantically in front of the police headquarters and so I turned my head to find out what was going on. I had to wipe my eyes again.
A woman was tumbling straight towards my car in a forced and quite wobbly seeming jog. The lady wore black pants and a loosely cut top, which both weren´t well suited for running. Her sandy hair was fixed in two characteristic buns and even if her head looked as if she tried to imitate a ripe plumato I recognized Lau Mi. The womans arms flailed around as if she wanted to tell me something very important. I complete missed the meaning behind the unfathomable gestures. She almost tripped and fell straight to her face. The kids also were staring at her. „What-the hell. That woman´s totally bonkers!" a nosy schollboy mocked. His comrades eyed him with some kind of pride, wasn´t their pal confident enough to state that an adult behaved stupid! „Yeah – look her tits are almost falling out of that thing!" another boy added blushing, a girl shortly afterwards tugged at his hair. „You´re my husband ShiShi! Youre a traitor who stares at other women!" she squeaked indignated and tugged the boys hair again.
„HEY! Take care of my bowls!" I snarked and the children snapped back into attention, sadly the poor ShiShi still dropped the bowl. Now some ramen were staining the stones in front of my cart – disgusting! Lau Mi tumbled into my cart and tried to steady herself on it. She almost touched the iron plates of the oven. „Ouch." she shook her slightly burned fingers which lead to a giggling crowd of students. „Hey – um...what´s the matter? Something bad happened?" I asked her concerned. Lau mi was panting heavily while he tattooed skin was glazed in sweat. She tried to utter some words but wasn´t able to. „Slow down. As for the customers – it seems the stall´s closed." I responded loudly while continuing to stirr the noodles that were already in the wok. I was seeking for one of my more trustworthy colleagues just in case I had to leave my cart for something urgent. I couldn´t imagine Lau Mi as somebody who started a new hobby like running and took it to such extremens, so she must have had a reason to force herself to such lengths. Finally she could control her breath.
„Come – come with me - at once! Lin´s -running away – otherwise..." she managed to gasp out between labored breaths. I glared at her. Was this woman kidding me? „You´re fuckin with me or what?" I was close to yelling and furiously slammed the hippocow noodles into the childs foodbox. The little girl almost dropped the box out of fright. I sighed. „I´m not angry at you little lady – today´s on the house." I responded in a forced, gentle tone. Then I whipped my head around again. „No – no I´m not – she´s in – my shop. Wants – piercings – silvery ones!" Lau Mi gasped and shook her head. „Almost didn´t - recognize – her. Just-the – the voice." she looked at me with an amost pleading face. Was Lau Mi serious? Was Lin really – alive? The blood was rushing through my head and it felt as if the world was spinning around me while the heart in my chest thudded. „Ughh." I had to steady myself by cluthing the handlebar with both hands. „Lee – you´re ok?" the tattoo artist hurried around the cart and touched my upper arm. „Yeah - yeah I´m fine." I responded while feeling anything besides fine. I shook my head, which cleared itself even though I still felt like wretching. „Where is she?" I asked her while almost riding off without packing my bike up. „Lee – you must, fasten the woks!" Lau Mi responded while firmly planting her hand on her thighs. I indeed had to do this if I didn´t want to hurt passerbys.
I was working in a flurry as a stinging pain surged through my hand. „Fuck!" I growled as I saw a big blister forming in my palm almost instantaneously while the cast iron wok hit the ground hard. Hot oil was staining the cobblestones and parts of my robe. I shook my hand, which was pulsing like crazy. It also was swelling. „What´re you idiot doing!" Lau Mi responded upset. She just tucked the wok away while I sliced the blister open with one of my knives. It still hurt like hell and didn´t contribute to me staying levelheaded. „We have to bandage that. Do you have blister-ointment and some gaze?" Lau Mi asked while I didn´t listen at all. I just continued fastening the things even if my hand hurt like hell. „Yeah Yeah – We´ll talk later!" I grumbled quite impolite. I just wanted to go to the elderberry RIGHT NOW! I wanted to see Lin - if it was her. And if Lau Mi had played me there would be nothing in the world that stopped me from beating that woman to a pulp. I jumped onto the cart and wanted to ride off as the tattoo artist grabbed my collar with a surprising strenght.
„Stop! Not so fast - where´s the Elderberry?" She asked me in a tone a mother would use with her overzealous four year old. I had to DO something and so I pointed into the direction I wanted to go to. „Wrong!" Lau Mi pointed out with a frown. „Gods Lee – get it together, please. It´s not like she´s mistrusting me. I´ve said I´ve got to fetch the piercings from the harbor district." she explained. I gulped as I realized that it was quite possible that Lin didn´t want to see me anymore. Why hadn´t she visited me? I wasn´t on the squirreltoads radar, because if I had been I´d be a rotting corpse in my own dumpster for quite a while. I wasn´t a Councilman like Tenzin, or a rich merchant Like Miss Sato, I was just a guy who easily could disappear in a large city and that actually was better than any armor. Nobodies like me weren´t taken seriously for most of the time. Just a few people knew that I was an airbender and even less people would know that I was a well rounded martial artist. Finally drawing conclusions between the Buffalo Flat Massacre and me – that would require an hilarious amount of work. Actually I didn´t believe that Lin had changed her mind about me, Tenzin and the youngsters.
I believed she was terribly afraid to endanger people, since she was just a froq-squirrel crazy brickhead! When little Linny was convinced of something she hyped herself up into a fit and nobody besides TenTen had been able to talk her out of it. In everything related towards her job choice even my brother failed, though. The fact that she still was in town should be enough to make clear she wasn´t eager to leave her life behind, I tried to convince myself. „You´re going right and down to the Yellow River street and follow it till the Shu- square." The woman had seated herself on the frame of the bicycle. I wasn´t reacting at all. „Weren´t you the eager one?" Lau Mi asked and waved a hand in front of my face. „Yes." I responded suddenly back in the present. „So what were you saying?" I asked her with furrowed brows. The woman let out a frustrated growl, while balling a fist. „You´ve to ride down the Yellew River street and follow it till the second square to the left. The shu square!" she repeated and I started cycling, while she had seated herself behind me on the carrier. She held onto me tightly, since it wasn´t easy to prevent sliding off the card at the bumpy street and my quite faste riding bike. My eyes were zipping around since I had to avoid people, other carts and cars with a quite bad tractable vehicle.
The Yellow River street was bustling with laden farming cars, and delivery vans. In between many citizens were zigzagging around with their motorcycles, which in most cases were hopefully overburdened. The engines were roaring and a grey dustscreen was spreading over the street. I started coughing soon, since the exhaust fumes weren´t exactly healty. People were honking at me, or some other cyclist who had to go down the road, crossing the yellow River street at the current hour was close to suicide, but nevertheless some idiotic teenagers tried it. I almost rammed a wiry, red haired boy in a greenish school uniform who darted across the street without looking right or left. „The fuck – you bloody idiot!" I yelled, while Lau Mi dug her fingers in my robes painfully. Obviously she was quite afraid because she had stopped talking after we reached the Yellow river street. Since I now could actually DO something I wasn´t out of my head anymore and hence didn´t need her instructions anymore.
I would cross the Shu square, which was quite easy since it wasn´t a market-day there. I would enter the badgermole road, cycle till I reached the President Raiko Lane and follow it till I could see the massive building of the faculty of economy. The faculty of economy, singular in the world, taught students how to do business and was the first private financed university of the world. She had been founded a few years ago by the Republic trade assiciation and had such shitloads of money that their students didn´t need to pay any fees. The Alumni took care of everything since most of them were quite successful businessmen nowadays. And then I had to squeeze the cart through a small alley to I arrive quite close to the elderberry. I barely managed to dodge a honking delivery van. „Get the fuck away from the street moron!" the driver yelled at me.
While I almost was torn from the bike through the drag induced by the huge vehicles speed. Lau Mi yelped in sheer terror. „Urhg." now her nails did hurt. I started coughing and my legs almost stopped moving at the proper speed, but if they stopped we would be dead, just a few hundred paces! Finally the bicycle jumped over the pavement onto the Shu Square. „Thank the mother of faces!" Lau Mi exclaimed from the bottom of her heart. The artists voice was shaking but her grip finally loosened a bit. Also the air was getting slightly better since a slight breeze was reaching the bottom of republic city right now. The narrow alleyways and the high buildings made air circulation crappy in most parts of the „old Rep" which was quite the problem due to the numerous cars that made people cough.
„Thats done." I managed to get out between labored breaths. Of course the sweat was pouring down all over my body, my heart was beating quite fast but I wouldn´t make some kind of rest. I rode on. „Lee – you´re ok?" Lau Mi asked worried. Obviously the woman wasn´t used to people doing sports because I wasn´t panting that heavily. „Y-Yeah." I reponded. „You really sound bad. I - Í mean we´re not having sex right now – if – if you strain your body like that for so long you´ll faint!" she blabbered worried. „Ah shut up." I hissed and sped up even more. Fainting – that was hilarious! My head was pulsing loudly in the rhytm of my heartbeat and my sight was a bit fuzzy, but no way in hell I was fainting! We had crossed the square while people started staring at the strangely laden noodlecart, then we entered the badgermole road, which luckily wasn´t as busy as the yellow river street which directly led towards the harbor district. The badgermoleroad led through the badger-mole flats which were slightly more prosperous than the buffalo or dragon flats. The most striking difference was in the inhabitants which usually were hard working people with closely knit communities. A lot of old people and housewives were passing by, chatting, carrying their buyings home or tending to the public gardens, which instead of pavements were adorning the unimpressive brickbuildings. Lau Mi tried to slow me down again and then resigned in pouting silence, while the noodlecart rolled on.
I suddenly turned a corner and the tattoo artist yelled „Stop – Stop Lee- Brake!" she yelled as I rode straight towards the narrow alley which admittedly wasn´t much broader than my cart. Still I was quite sure that we would fit through it! „Like a Shim in the pocket!" I tried to reassure her, but since I was out of breath my words slurred and she most likely didn´t understand anything at all. Suddenly I was pushed, the cart staggered a tad and I didn´t feel Lau Mi´s hands at my back anymore. Still it was too late to stop and I charged into the alleyway, hoping that no poor sap would end up under the frontwheels. Of course I wasn´t thinking that far ahead, I just wanted to reach the elderberry! I heard a gasp. „You´re crazy! THATS DANGEROUS!" Lau Mi yelled. Obviously she had jumped off the cart. I didn´t have the breath to respond to her. I passed the alley, and zigzaged around three following right cornes, once almost killing the raccoondog of an old lady. The woman threw a cursing fit but I simply ignored it. Of Course I passed the elderberry and just noticed I had passed the tattoo atelier after arriving on the end of the street. I simply left my noodle cart and staggered up the street. I had been racing down before. My legs were heavy and numb, so it was no wonder that I tripped and suddenly found myself staring at a cobble stone a few spans in front of my face.
Damn it! My burned palm was dirty now – I snorted annoyed, got back up and continued my run panting like a dying boarcupine. As I finally reached the Elderberry, the cutains were lowered and a sign showed that the shop was closed. I still grapped the doorknob and pushed open the door, which luckily wasn´t locked. As I entered my eyes searched for Lin, but I didn´t see her. Damnit! Should she have left because she got spooked by the artists long absence? Had I been too slow? The tattooing chair was empty, there wasn´t money left. Obviously Lin had become a bit of a pragmatic over the years. I dropped to my knees and stared on the floor as sweat dripped from my nose, the beard and the brows. „FUCK!" I growled, not minding the volume of my voice. I struck the floor with my palm but noticed that my body was too exhausted to vent my rage at the moment. I mostly was furious at myself for being so slow, but also I was angry at this little pest!
Was she purposefully running away from me? Just how good did that woman hide herself in the city – and for what motherfucking purpose? She was dead for fucks sake – as long as she didn´t try to reclaim her old name almost nobody would give a shit about her! Not even criminals, well cut out those with a personal vendetta...But the Dai Li most likely would ignore her, they had killed Chief Bei Fong – a woman named Lin wasn´t a person of interest. Well – if they DID investigate her they of course would use her to get Hungshu away from his seat, maybe they would bring Lin behind bars but that was really unlikely. Or had Lau Mi lied to me? But what reason should the woman have for something like that?
Spies didn´t lurk on streetcorners to investigate the working class on an individual level. I couldn´t imagine that since – nobody´s gotta spy for free, right? My hand was throbbing furiously. I just panted silently since I didn´t have the energy for yelling around at the moment. I wondered if Lau Mi had injured herself. Damn – I really had been a careless maniac! I shook my head. Now the tattoo artist would be quite pissed at me too, and Lin would be gone – it could be highly probable that she was leaving the city, or just had been swallowed up by the streets already. Piercings – that fitted to Lin like three piece suits fitted in my wardrobe! I grit my teeth – the lone thought hurt like a splinter driven through your body. I had seen what wrecks the streets made of women, and I didn´t want Lin to end up like my mother. By all heavens, I´d rather chop off my arm than let this happen but, big words didn´t change anything! I just sat there and stared as, suddenly, something thundered onto the floor.
Quite close to myself. Something hissed though the air and strapped my hands close to my body. I blinkingly stared at the torn off fragment of a power cable, which magically was tying me up like a piece of summer roll. I was too startled to protest, since the person who had overpowered me like that whinced and clutched her side. „Who send..." the woman hissed and stopped with a shocked expression settling on her face. I just stared disbelievingly at the, quite unusual looking, woman. Half her head was wrapped up in gaze and what was not covered by the white bindings was dominated by bird cutter rows, which were colored a vibrant green. Her arms were covered in terra bands, or ornaments that looked quite similar, even the backsides of her hands were coated with the complex patterns that somehow looked feminine. the visible skin was reddish and partially peeling off, there was a badgermolehead on her neck. She wore a puffy green trouser and a quite revealing top.
Still that face, it was somehow familiar... Of course it was – nobody besides little Linny was standing right in front of me! I almost fainted at that insight and barely noticed that the cable loosened itself and slid to the floor. Lin was gasping. „Lee – why´re you here?" she croaked in a muffled voice. My sight was blurring as unmanly tears stained my cheeks and I somehow felt triumphant. Lin wasn´t dead and like hell I would let her run off now I had found her. Finally my hard work was rewarded and the constant worries that had piled themselves up on my shoulders rumbled downwards. It felt like a mountain taken off my shoulders.
„Thank the spirits." I responded and rose with my arms spread open. Lin rose her hands in her typical, prude fake rejection. She turned her face away but that was no hindrance for me. I hugged her close and of course she didn´t struggle - like in her youth. She still was the same little brickhead I´ve gotten to know so many years ago. Instead she let out a muffled cry as she slumped into me. „Just what the hell´ve ya been doin Linny – I´ve worried meself sick! Never found ye, not in the vines, not n the dragon flats...nowhere – goddam bitch ya are!" I sniffed and hardened my embrace, while sounding a lot like the Ba Sing Se streetrat I had been. She smelled musky and earthy. It was strange to smell her like that, since Lin Bei Fong had always used some kind of perfume. I didn´t know why, but my friend just started hiccupping after that, she shivered like a tumbling leaf and didn´t stop.
I just held her like a child and waited for her to regain her composure. It had been too rough on her I guessed, I had no idea what she had been through, especially with her head wrapped in gaze like that. I had no idea which kind of shithead had done this to her but just thinking about the things that might be hidden below that white cloth made me angry. Slowly Lin stopped trembling but even after her hiccupping had subsided she had no intention to let go of me.
I was wondering if my doings were appropriate though - Lin was quite stingy about body contact. That also had changed over the decades. I slowly lowered the hand that had been resting on her lower back and tried drawing it away. The only result was her nose embedding itself even firmer in my shoulder. That was unexpected and I felt quite close to blushing – the hell was going on with Lin? „You´re better?" I asked her in a quite voice. The question sounded rather hollow, even in my own ears. You weren´t getting better from a trip through hell like that! In knew this first hadn, for fucks sake! Lin sneezed right in my robes – yuck! „Yeah." she mumbled silently. „D-Don´t tell me you just sneezed in my robes?" I sounded quite disturbed. Lin let go af me at once, while blushing furiously. „W-Wel umm. I – I apologize." she stammered while a puffy eye stared onto the floor intensely. I then remembered that her mother also had the annoying habit to use her sleeves as a replacement for handkerchiefs - especially when she had been sick. „It´s ok." I managed a weak smile and patted her upper arm.
„You´re staying with me until we got you something better." I stated. Lins eye widened. „B-But Lee. That´s too dangerous! I´m a wanted woman. What if the Dai Li spies find us!" she yipped mortified. I just furrowed my brows. „Yeah – cuz they couldn´t kill me if they wanted Lin... If anyone knew I was involved in this shit I´d be dead in some gutter! And I´m quite lively over here! I´m not a figure of public interest like you were. We both know that this whole thing never was personal!" I rambled with a shivering voice. Lin crossed her arms. „We can´t be sure!" she responded heatedly. „A-And I don´t want anybody to riks their lives for me. I- I ….especially not you Lee!" she whimpered, which made my pulse spike even more. „So I should let you run away? To nowhere? No way in hell Lin – I´ll not let you be swallowed by the streets. Drugs aren´t a solution and no way in Hell I´ll let you become like my mother!" I growled while forcing her to lock eyes. Lin let out a silent, squaky sound. „We´re family and just because I couldn´t keep the promise I made to uncle Sokka..." my voice cracked quite suspiciously „There´s no way in hell you´ll not have my back – we´re family Lin!" I rambled on, while poking my indexfinger in her shoulder. „And if you stupid brickhead think you can overcome everything alone you´re wrong! Heavens, I´couldn´t deal with this shit alone either! My squirt and even TenTen helped me a lot. Kicking me back into shape and such... Talking bout things." I admitted flushing slightly.
It wasn´t easy to admit that I needed help for something, it never had been. „Please let me help – I can´t loose my last childhood friend like that Lin. Please!" I sounded quite pahetic and annoyingly a breathless Lau Mi entered the elderberry. Lin stared at the floor and blushed crimson. „My floor!" the artist stared at a torn up spot in her wooden floor. The concrete of the buildings foundation had resurfaced in a quite spectacular fashion and some splintered planks were scattered around the room, as I noticed just now. „Oh shit!" I stated while Lin shrunk in embarrassment „I -I´m sorry, I thought you´d ve sold me out." she admitted barely audible.
„I- I mean you´re just some friend of Zu Li´s and so I thought.." Lin trailed off stammering, while Lau Mi glared at the woman like a rabid fireferret. „You´ll FIX this! You´ll not leave until it´s fixed and you´ll NOT use bending for it!" she commandet and even I snapped into attention as the furious artist climbed up her ladder. „Oh shit." I stated the obvious, while my legs still felt like noodles. I really wasn´t in the mood for woodworking, an Lin most likely would be as talented as as an elementary schooler. She had never done any kind of manual labor, she was a Bei Fong after all!
Authors note: AAAANNND fluffshit. Hopefully this gets some reviews. Sorry for the correction but there just were too many mistakes.