Realization

"You did well today, Detective."

Beifong's voice floated out from behind the door of the little private bathroom just off of her office.

"How did you..."

The door opened a bit and her head popped out from behind it, giving him a look that clearly said 'You are a moron.'

Mako felt his face getting warm and he mumbled out an embarrassed 'thank you.'

She emerged from the bathroom wearing the standard white tank top and gray pants that all officers wore. He noticed she had a small bandage on her forehead and a several bruises on her arms. She sat down in her chair, folding her arms across chest before looking up at her detective.

"You have handled this case well from start to finish. I have been quite impressed -" She said. "And that is not an easy thing to do. Now, get us a couple of coffees from the kitchen and meet me back here. The less glamorous part of the job awaits us, Detective."

Lin dropped a pile of paperwork onto her desk, the corners of her mouth turned up slightly.

Mako sighed and headed off to the little kitchen located just down the hall from the detectives' workroom. As he waited for the coffee to brew he looked around the room at the posters on the wall and notices on the bulletin board about things for sale or invitations to events. One of the posters caught his eye and he realized that it was covering up something.

Curiosity got the better of him and he climbed up on a nearby chair and removed the pins of the top poster. It fell to reveal a poster of their Chief. She was standing in front of the buildings of Republic City, hands on hips, looking proud and fearless. If not for the date stamped at the bottom and her darker hair, he would have sworn it had been printed yesterday. Her name was in bold characters across the top as well as her title.

"Awful, isn't it?"

Mako turned and saw her leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed.

"No, it's not bad. It's actually a really nice picture of you." Mako immediately blushed. "But you always take really nice pictures."

Lin smiled a little. "Can you believe that was almost twenty years ago? I had just been promoted to Chief and Tenzin and the rest of the council thought it would be a good way to introduce me to the city. As if the city didn't already know who I was."

She touched the poster, now stained and slightly torn with age. "I didn't speak to Tenzin for a week after that. I wanted to be taken seriously and this just made me feel like the only reason I was promoted was because of beauty and nepotism, instead of skill. The photographer was hellbent on trying to get me to agree to wear makeup that covered my scars, but I wouldn't let anyone put that shit on my face. These scars are a part of me."

"You made the right choice." He smiled back at her." At first I thought it was recent. Then I saw the date at the bottom and was kind of surprised. You haven't changed."

"Detective, are you trying to flatter me?" Lin smirked. "You are still going to have to fill out that paperwork."

"I know…shit…no, what I mean is that you were beautiful then and you are beautiful now." Mako's eyes widened in horror at what he just said and he suddenly wished he was an earth bender so he could just bend himself into the floor. She was going to think he was flirting with her and maybe he was a little bit, but he didn't want to die for it or worse, be assigned crossing guard duty.

But she didn't kill him. She didn't even look angry. Her cheeks were slightly pink and she was looking at him with an expression he couldn't quite read.

"Thank you. That was nice of you to say." Lin gave him one of her rare smiles that went all the way to her eyes and he felt his pulse speed up. He wanted to tell her that he didn't just say she was beautiful to be polite, it was really what he thought. Before he could speak up, her expression changed back to the no-nonsense one she always wore. "Now enough of this silliness. Back to that spirits damned paperwork. Hopefully we won't be here all night."

Mako grabbed their coffee cups and poured their coffee, handing her one.

"Oh and please for the love of Raava, get rid of that damn thing." She waved her hand dismissively at the poster. "You're a fire bender, burn it, throw it in the trash, whatever. I just don't want to see it in this station again."

She left the kitchen and Mako stared up once again at the poster and the proud woman depicted on it. He had gotten to know that woman over the years, as much as Lin would allow someone to get to know her, and he liked her. He liked her a lot.

As he pulled the poster down and rolled it up, Mako realized that he was feeling some thing for her that had been growing for weeks, maybe months. It was the same something that was keeping him from destroying the poster.

"Detective! You keep stalling and you are going to do all this paperwork by yourself!"

Mako grabbed his coffee from the counter and hurried to the chief's office, but not before depositing the poster safely under his desk.