With the fourth cup of coffee since she first entered the building held in her hand, Lin turned the page of her rather thick file on the Spirit Vines case. She was able to snuff the press's flame about the spirit vines connection with the recent explosions. No need to cause a public panic, she had told the quivering reporters. Such spineless fools , Lin thought to herself.
She looked over to the map hanging on her wall. If anyone who was not on the case asked why she had circled certain areas, she would tell them that those were places where she was considering living in when she retired. That way no one would be the wiser when she crossed the circles off, they would just assume she was narrowing her choices. Of course, the word retirement sent the officers outside her office into a frenzy. Each one of them had their own ambitions but no matter what officer, they saw themselves sitting in Lin's seat as the new Chief of Police once she hung up her metal cables. Greedy little shits, Lin had dubbed them but greedy little shits got their work done and relatively well.
A page turned and Lin's coffee mug halted before it touched her lips. Hard and cold eyes stared back at her from a mug shot. Even when beaten and arrested, Kuvira still had a commanding look about her, like she was calculating each move, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. She was one of the most difficult criminals Lin ever had the misfortune to work with. Kuvira had been nothing but cooperative since she first starting interrogating the woman, but that just made Lin's life harder. Lin had a sneaking suspicion that Kuvira was all too aware of the predicament she was causing her.
In most cases, Lin would have offered the young woman a deal to get time off of her sentence or a possible transfer to a less…. strict facility for the amount of information she was giving so freely. It occurred so often that it became an unspoken policy at the Republic City's Police Department. The public was blind by the standard so there would be no outrage but the scum of Republic City knew about it so when they were interrogated, they were more willing to spill the dirt on their comrades.
Lin wouldn't allow it in Kuvira's case however. The bitch deserved to rot in that wooden prison for the rest of her life for what she put everyone through. For what she put Asami through.
The Chief took a gulp of her now cold coffee, wishing she had some whiskey to warm up the drink. She remembered helping Asami pick up the pieces after her father's sacrifice. They had celebrated Kuvira's defeat that night but afterwards Asami had stole Lin away from the meek party. Lin had held Asami and whispered soothing words as the younger woman sobbed into her metal uniform. The younger woman actually apologized for her tears and that was what caused something within Lin to snap. She said nothing, she had simply picked Asami up and carried the sniffling woman to her car. It had taken an hour for Lin to navigate to her house due to the destruction of the city but she finally found a safe route and carried Asami to her bed. Asami didn't offer any complaint, she had pulled Lin down to join her as soon as Lin was free of her uniform. Even though they were both dirty and Lin had dried blood stains on her clothes from the final fight, they didn't rise from that bed until well into the next day.
And that funeral . Lin drank the last of her coffee and pushed the empty mug away. It was such a small funeral, only Asami and her friends had attended. Lin was there as a formality, making sure no one harassed Ms. Sato as she lowered an empty casket to rest, or at least that was how her presence was explained. She hated it, seeing each tear that leaked from Asami's eyes and not being able to do a thing about it. Instead she watched as Korra held onto Asami and murmur things that were too soft for Lin to hear. She was grateful for the Avatar that day, especially when she pulled her away from a publicist that somehow slipped through security to take a picture of Hiroshi's funeral. Lin had smashed the camera to pieces and slapped a pair of handcuffs on the asshole. She couldn't charge him with anything, it was a public place after all, but it was still satisfying to throw him in her patrol vehicle. Lin had secretly let Asami stay at her place for a week to comfort the grieving woman.
"Uh, Chief?" called out a voice from the other side of the door.
Lin was brought violently out of her memories and she stowed away her emotions like she would the sheets of paper in the file that was clenched in her hands. Lin closed it and set it to the side so her desk would be somewhat clear. "Come in," she barked.
Mako opened the door and went inside her office. He closed it behind him and marched to her desk. He offered a file that was meager compared to the one occupying the desk and Lin took it. She leafed through the report as Mako went to the map and crossed out another circle. "We've found none of the spirit vines but there was evidence of recent experimentation." Mako answered before Lin could ask the question. "My partner is fine, Chief."
There was something off in his stance and Lin looked at him expectantly. He almost fidgeted and she knew he was trying to hide something. She didn't even need to use her bending to feel his pounding heart through the earth. "Out with it," she ordered, her voice brooking no argument.
"When I came back, I, uh, got a call. From President Reiko."
Lin growled under her breath and pushed back into her chair. "Let me guess. The investigation is going too slow?"
Mako nodded and almost fidgeted again under her intense stare. "He said that if we don't pick up the pace, he'll find others who will."
A fist slamming on the desk made Mako flinch. He had only seen Lin angry once and that was at Su. He hoped he would never do anything to incur Lin's wrath and he pitied the fool who invoked it. "That fucker has been up my ass on this investigation and now he's threatening my officers! Disgraceful!" Lin growled. She stabbed a finger in Mako's direction. "We are doing this safely and if that means being more cautious then so be it. I will not have another member of my force and another civilian killed because some pompous buffoon wants things done fast. The next time he calls, tell him that if he has a problem with how I handle things, he should face me like a man and not go behind my back like a pussy."
"Really?" Mako's eyes were wide in shock.
"No, not really!" Mako was truly one of her finest officers, the finest actually, but he could be just as dense as the rest of them. Lin took a deep breath to calm herself and waved impatiently at the map. "Just continue your investigation on another location after you and your partner have rested up."
Mako nodded and left the Chief to her musings. Lin stared at the map. A little less than half the circles were crossed off now but what Mako said had disturbed her. "Evidence of recent experimentation," she repeated. She didn't like the sound of that at all. Lin radioed all the teams that were currently dispatched and warned them of what Mako told her. Once that was done, she slumped against her seat, feeling a headache coming on. Lin glared at the fat folder and the picture of the woman hidden inside the countless papers. "This is all your fault," she told the photograph.
Lin looked down at her hands and noticed how they were empty. She opened one of her drawers and took out the present Korra had given her. The Avatar could be even denser than Mako but she did very well with choosing what she should give Lin. The Chief looked at the chunk of meteorite, feeling the metal within it, begging to put into use, to be manipulated into something beautiful. She created simple shapes first and then made the meteorite become more complex objects as she pulled the folder back in front of her. Lin opened it up to the page she left off and ignored the picture of Kuvira as she read what the notes of her interrogations with Korra.
She tried to think of new questions, anything that would help her find those spirit vines before they could cause more damage than they already did. But as she stared at the words written by her own hand, they danced off the page. In their place were two faces: the faces of the two officers that were killed in the second explosion. She had sent them to their deaths, they accused Lin. The Chief ground her teeth and banished the faces from her thoughts.
"Those two officers knew and understood the risks."
Lin had tried to take comfort in Korra's words, and she did for a time, but that night she couldn't stop seeing their coffins being lowered into the ground. They were a fine man and woman and they had received a hero's funeral. Lin looked back to the meteorite. Without her knowledge, she had bent it to the symbol of Future Industries. Asami had much the same look on her face as the two officers' families.
She quickly sent the meteorite into a formless blob. Lin should think of something else, anything else. She allowed her mind to go forth wherever it wished. Her thoughts turned to the events of the night before. Lin had fun on the date, surprisingly. She still didn't fully understand why she let it happen. She cared for Asami deeply, more deeply than she cared for anyone really, but Korra was another story. The Avatar was attractive, there was no argument there, but she was too full of herself. Lin had to concede that she had gotten a lot better than when the two had first met. She still chuckled when she recalled that Korra had assumed she would have gotten off scot free from wrecking a street and evading the police just because she was the Avatar.
But why did she let the date occur?
Even as she pondered the question, Lin had the answer. She would do anything to make Asami happy. If the mechanic would be happy with the snowblower so be it, as long as Lin could have some of that happiness too. When Korra blurted out her feelings and asked for a date, it was Lin that agreed to it. It was a spur of the moment decision but she was also panicking. She didn't want to end up alone again. Lin still did not know why Asami would entertain her for those three years. Lin had assumed that the mechanic would have put an end to it when Korra entered her life again. A dark voice would whisper that she was just a temporary replacement for Korra when she and Asami were panting and sweaty from a round of passionate fucking. Lin would roar at the voice to shut up and leave her be but it would whisper the same words the next time the two fell into bed together. But even after Korra returned, she and Asami would still meet in secret and spend whatever time they could with one another.
If she had to share Asami then she will.
"I'm going soft," Lin grumbled to herself.
That damn voice was back. It whispered so low that Lin had almost missed it. It murmured how she was intrigued by Korra. After so much tragedy in her life, Korra was still able to hold her head high, like Asami. Lin respected that. And she supposed that the younger woman could be funny when she wasn't aggravating.
The voice wasn't satisfied with Lin's confession. It brought out a memory of the date, more specifically the last bit of it. It showed Asami kissing Korra. The kiss itself was nothing particularly special, it was a peck really, but seeing it ignited something in Lin. The Chief thought that the sight was incredibly arousing.
Lin gulped and tried to take a sip from her mug but forgot that she drank the last of the coffee and hadn't refilled the mug. She set it down and tried to end the thoughts budding in her mind but she couldn't. It was like a mud slide. Lin was so tempted to pay Asami a visit later on that night, it wouldn't be the first time either of them made a late night call, but she stopped herself. Barely. So Lin had spent a great portion of that night touching herself, imagining the kiss between the two younger women leading into something more. Her mind didn't even bother creating a proper scene, the two made love right in front of the restaurant. Lin took a deep breath and could feel her body heat up in arousal.
Maybe she was, what was the word? A cuck? No, that wasn't right. Lin fought for the word and managed to grab it right as it tried to slip past. Compersion! That was the word. Lin frowned and crossed her arms at her new discovery. But it didn't make sense. She never had the inclination of sharing her partner with anyone before. Lin knew and accepted that she was a woman that was quick to a temper and jealousy and perhaps she was possessive of Asami but the younger woman never voiced a complaint before. In fact, Lin believed that the mechanic liked the knowledge that Lin could become possessive and jealous over her, she suspected that it filled Asami with glee that she had such a hold on Lin.
The Chief decided to do a little test. She looked at the door where Mako had left a little while ago. She tried to imagine him and Asami being intimate with one another. They had dated before so surely they had sex at one point? Lin knew first hand how much of a sexual deviant Asami could be once she was comfortable to let that side be known.
Lin didn't even get past the image of Mako kissing Asami. She felt intense anger towards Mako, her hand clenched at her arm. So she didn't like the idea of Asami being intimate with the firebender. Lin rubbed at her temples as she puzzled out her feelings. Why was she okay with Asami kissing Korra?
She tried another test. This time she imagined Korra kissing Mako. The same hot anger reared in Lin and she had another urge of hitting Mako. Lin groaned in annoyance. She never had to deal with these confusing emotions when she dated Tenzin. It was more like a second job than anything else. Go on a date, talk over food, laugh a little at his terrible jokes, maybe share a kiss goodbye. Just a checklist. Neat and tidy and predictable. But with Asami and Korra it was more like a sandstorm tornado. Lin could never predict where it would take her or how fast the winds would blow. But fuck was it exciting.
"I'm too old for this bullshit," Lin concluded. She looked back down at the neglected folder and turned to the next page. It held much of the same information as the others but maybe there was something hidden there, something that Lin could use to end this mess. "Time to get back to work," Lin muttered.