Korra rolled over in the bed, a hand reaching out to try to pull one of the women closer to snuggle with. She grumbled when her searching proved fruitless and peeked open an eye. Korra was the only one in the room, the sheets on the edges of the bed ruffled as if someone left recently.
"Asami?" Korra said groggily, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "Lin?" she called out. The faint sound of a violin being played reached Korra's ears. She left the comforts of the warm bed, shivering when her bare feet touched the cool wood. From what she could tell, the music was coming from the kitchen. And the aroma that greeted her through the ajar door was making her mouth water and her stomach rumble. Korra walked out of the room and padded to the kitchen. Korra leaned against the wall of the hallway, taking in the scene with a grin.
Asami was the one making that delicious aroma. She was humming in time of the violin as she cooked omelettes. Korra's eyes took in Asami's sleeping attire. Asami was wearing one of her red nightgowns but this one ended at her mid-thigh with frills brushing up against their skin. The top had a plunging neckline that made Korra hungry for more than food. She moved her eyes to look at the other occupant, convinced that if she watched Asami any longer she would lose control of her lust.
Lin was sitting at the marble island. She was wearing her light blue pajamas. For some reason, the fact that the clothing were long sleeve and long pants made Lin more delectable than if she wore something that left little to the imagination.
Korra glanced down to take note of what she was wearing. She sported boxers with printed water tribe insignia throughout the light blue fabric and a white tank top.
Lin was sipping at a mug of coffee as she read the morning's newspaper. When she noticed the Avatar standing at the entrance of the hallway, she gave the younger woman a smirk. "You're finally awake," she commented.
"It's the weekend," Korra replied as she took the seat next to Lin. She kissed Lin's cheek. "And you're retired. You should be the last one up."
"Just because I don't have to get up early, it doesn't mean I should waste the day sleeping." Lin turned the page and frowned down at the news article on the paper.
Korra shrugged at the answer and grinned as Asami moved the omelettes to two plates. She leaned over the island to kiss Asami thanks. Korra did not waste any time digging into her breakfast. "Good," she said with her mouth full.
"I'm glad you think so," Asami said. She took her seat on the other side of Lin and took a drink from Lin's cup. Lin paid the favor by taking some of Asami's omelette.
Incessant knocking greeted the three women and Korra almost choked on her omelette. Korra swallowed her food and slipped out of her seat before either woman could move to answer the door. She noticed Asami leaving the kitchen, presumably to fetch something more modest to wear. Korra opened the door slightly to tell whoever it was to come back later, her eyes widening when she saw Mako with his fist raised to knock once more.
"Korra?" Mako blushed and snapped to attention and saluted Korra with his right arm, his left carrying a rather fat folder. "I mean Avatar Korra. I've come to give a personal report to Lin Beifong. Is she home?" Despite the red face that would have made his old scarf jealous, Mako looked every bit of a Chief of Police. His new badge shone brightly in the morning light like it was polished hours ago, which it might have been.
Korra groaned and opened the door wider so he could enter the house. "Not this again," she whined. Since she, Lin, and Asami were exposed, Mako fell back to his extremely formal self. It was even worse than when both her and Asami had broken up with Mako. Now he fidgeted and fixed his badge whenever Lin was with them and wouldn't meet any of their eyes. The first time it happened, Korra was tempted to sucker punch him, mistaking his actions as signs of him being homophobic. Luckily for all of them, Bolin had explained that Mako was just unsure of how he should act around his two exes that were now dating each other as well as his former boss and predecessor. Hearing Bolin put everything into that perspective made Korra understood where Mako was coming from and she allowed the man some lee way to act a little weird around them until he got used to the situation.
"Mako's here to see you," Korra told Lin as took back her seat. She almost chuckled at how Mako stood awkwardly in the doorway, his eyes trained on Lin in the obedience of a new officer.
"Good morning, Ch- Lin." The name felt weird coming out of Mako's mouth and his face scrunched up at the sound of it. He saluted Lin from the doorway.
Lin looked up from her newspaper, clearly displeased with the fact that her morning was disturbed. "If you're going to waste my time, you might as well do it inside the house. You're letting all the warmth out."
Mako gulped and entered the house, shutting the door behind him. He gingerly placed the folder he was carrying on the island in front of Lin.
The former Chief of Police frowned at the folder and looked up at Mako expectantly. "Why is her file out of the precinct?"
Her tone made Mako flinch as his fingers adjusted his badge. He opened his mouth to answer but the sight of Asami leaving from Lin's bedroom in a flattering red robe still his words. She sat next to Lin and stared down at the file with a confused look. It now occurred to him that the three women were still in their night wear. Which meant that Korra and Asami spent the night. With Lin. Alone. "Well I, um," Mako pulled at his collar, finding it a little hard to talk. "I wanted to tel- inform you on some, uh,"
"Out with it!" Lin barked. Even if she was retired, Lin could go into her commanding Chief mode when she wanted something done fast. It was a huge turn on for Korra and Asami to hear that authoritative voice come out and Lin wasn't shameful in exploiting it.
"We have an update about the case and I thought you should know," Mako said at once. Now that he was given the order, he seemed grow confident in his words. He opened the file and the picture of Kuvira looked at them. "We found evidence that some, if not all, the remaining members of the Red Lotus were inleague with Kuvira during her time as the Great Uniter." He flipped through the file and brought out a report about the last investigation on a possible location of the missing spirit vines.
Lin took the report and scanned what it had said. There were pictures of the scene and a mugshot of someone that the police had apprehended. It stated that after some intense questioning, the suspect had told them that she was a member of the Red Lotus. She had shown proof of her involvement with the group by naming Aiwei as a member that Zaheer had disposed of. Only a true member of the Red Lotus would know that; Suyin and Lin had covered up his demise to try and keep the public unaware of the organization lest it started a panic. What good that did. She handed the report back to Mako and he carefully put it back with the rest.
"Kuvira never mentioned the Red Lotus helping her," Korra muttered.
"I don't think she even knows," Mako said. He took a sheet of paper from the stack of the file and laid it on the table for the three to see. It was a timeline of Kuvira's reign with a crude drawing of the Red Lotus's insignia near the beginning. "From what we've gathered, the Red Lotus had infiltrated Kuvira's army as she just started to 'unite' the earth states. We still don't have a solid answer as to why but we believe that it might have been to learn how Kuvira's army works and to secretly recruit the bandits Kuvira found. There have been several cases of prisoners escaping the reeducation camps, it might have been the Red Lotus's work."
Asami looked at the timeline, her eyes narrowing at the end of it. There was a list of people of significance that lost their lives during the final battle. It was mostly soldiers of the United Forces but there were two airbenders. At the bottom of the list was her father's name. Her heart gave a pang as she focused on Mako. "Why are they messing with the spirit vines now?"
Mako had saw where Asami's eyes went and tucked the timeline back into the file. "We need to question the suspect more but we believe that since Kuvira is out of power, the Red Lotus took the opportunity to steal the missing spirit vines. They saw how much destruction one blast from a spirit vine can do." The fingers of the arm that was burned when he tried to overload the spirit vines during the final battle flexed in his glove. The attack left the arm badly scarred to the elbow and after all the time recuperating Mako could not produce a flame with that hand. The doctor said that he might never firebend with that arm ever again. "They're getting desperate by messing with the spirit vines. Now that we have one of their members, the rest will work even harder to weaponize the rest of the spirit vines." Mako hesitated before adding. "There's one more thing. The member mentioned a location that was not on Kuvira's list of research facilities."
"If they start using random buildings instead of actual research facilities, it increases the risk of another accidental explosion," Lin said with a frown. The Red Lotus were suicidal fools if they continue down this road. And they already proved that they don't mind setting off a spirit vine if it meant avoiding capture. She nodded to Mako. "Thank you for telling us all this. Continue to investigate the research facilities and question this suspect more harshly. If she knows something, you need to know it and fast." Lin gave the orders like she was still the Chief of Police. It felt as natural as bending the metal of her old uniform.
Mako acknowledged the advice with a solemn salute. He might be the new Chief of Police but Lin would always have authority over him. It was just a fact of life, like fire burning and water cooling. Mako closed the file and tucked it under his arm. "I'll get on it as soon as possible. I'll have Zaheer questioned about the Red Lotus members. Once he hears they've been working for Kuvira, I think he'll be more cooperative."
Korra wanted to look more into the file but she knew it wasn't her place. "I'll walk you out." She followed Mako to the door and noticed how he hesitated once he was outside. "You'll find the rest of the spirit vines, Lin wouldn't have made you chief if she didn't have the confidence in you."
"Yeah." Mako turned his head to look inside the house. Lin and Asami were talking in low voices, Lin held Asami's hand as Asami brushed away a stray tear from her cheek, her eyes focused on where the file was. "Can I tell you something?" When Korra nodded with an encouraging grin, Mako took a deep breath. "I know I've been weird around you and Asami, even more after, uh, we broke up." His blush was back and he rubbed the back of his neck. "I was just a bit surprised by your new relationship. I didn't think either of you were like that." Korra slowly quirked her eyebrow and Mako held up the hand not clenching the file up. "I didn't mean it like that! It's just, I always thought that you two liked guys." His face reddened more. "That came out wrong!"
Korra decided to have pity for the poor man. She rested a hand on his shoulder. "Mako, calm down. I know what you're trying to say, Bolin already explained everything to me."
Mako's face flashed in annoyance at his brother talking about him behind his back but it turned to relief at being saved from making a further ass of himself. "I am happy for you two, really. Just," he glanced back inside. Lin and Asami were still whispering to each other but now Asami looked less upset than she did a moment ago. Mako looked at Korra and jerked his head towards the kitchen. "Lin? How did that happen?"
"Trust me, it surprised me too," Korra responded with a laugh. "And it's a long, embarrassing story of me not knowing how to knock. But I'm really, really happy." She looked at her two lovers with a soft grin. "I'm lucky to have them."