AN1: I'm really glad that the last chapter seemed to be well received! Hopefully this lives up to the wait, I was excited to finish it and I'll go through and edit it again in the morning! As always, R&R, CC is welcomed. :) – HMB
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The rain created a steady beat against the windows, which acted like a dull drum to drown out the other noises of the city below. It was welcome in Republic City: it had been a very dry summer so far and the few plants and green areas in the metropolis needed it. Usually concentrating on the sound calmed Lin, but today had left her anything but calm.
The chief sat down at her kitchen table, putting her face into her hands while trying to dissect and understand the events that had led her to that moment. The day had had so many twists and turns, it left a rather unsettled heaviness in her stomach. One thing was for certain though: she now had an eight year old child that needed to be cared for.
Su soon joined her, quietly enjoying her company. She began to look over the woman who'd she had grown up admiring and wanting to be closer to. She never had the proper way to express that desire to her older sibling and often would end up fighting before it could be voiced. Lin looked tired, and didn't even acknowledge her presence as she sat, even though she knew she felt her approaching. Her sister had bended off her armor earlier, and now sat in her baggy uniform pants and a wrinkled wife-beater, which held the stains of metal rubbing constantly against it leaving long greyish marks. Her shoulders were slumped – a tell-tale sign that Lin was deep in thought over something: if Su had to venture a guess, it was probably the bombshell she dropped on her just a few hours prior.
She knew Lin would take a long time to adjust, especially since so much had changed over the course of the evening that her uncharacteristically unprepared sister needed to adjust.
Dinner had been dreadfully awkward.
The trio sat at Yi's noodle bar for over an hour, with Su trying to get both parties to converse with one another. It wasn't that they didn't want to talk, it was more that Lin was very direct in her answers, and Kuvira was too shy to really answer questions in a more elaborate fashion.
Su looked over at Lin, annoyed at her most recent clipped answer to the child.
"So, Kuvira here is a metal bender! She even bent a metal cuff and tried to stop Huan from pulling her hair! Isn't that amazing?"
The elder metalbending master perked up, giving the child her signature crooked grin. Finally, a subject she could talk about. "When did you start bending, kid?"
The up until that time timid Kuvira swallowed her noodles and smiled brightly, "I started earthbending when I was four! It was so cool! And then I started bending metal when I was seven! Toph didn't even invent metalbending until she was twelve!"
Lin looked up to Su and mouthed "That's early," before continuing with now excited Kuvira, "Did you deck Huan good?"
Su smacked Lin's hand, trying to reprimand her sister even though she was smiling. Kuvira pumped her fist in victory, nearly knocking over her noodles in the process, "Yeah! He ran back to his sculptures and hasn't bothered me since!"
Lin continued to grin. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.
As the three entered the apartment, it became painfully obvious how little time Lin spent at the place. Not a single book on the shelf or article of clothing was astray, and the cabinets contained more dust than food within them.
The Chief had no particular emotional attachment to the "home," as it was called. The whole concept boggled Lin. It was a place to sleep occasionally and store a few things she held dear, but it never was a place she liked to spend any extended amount of time. It reminded her how lonely she was, having just herself and no one else in this so-called sanctuary. At least at work, the bustling bodies and constant flow of people made her feel a part of something.
"Lin, when was the last time you slept here?" Su continued to survey the surroundings, taking in the pristine, although dusty, apartment.
"Uh… Maybe Tuesday?"
"Today is Tuesday…" Su shook her head, thinking how the information had not been all too surprising: Lin rarely left work, and even when she did leave, she never truly left it behind. "You need to get out more."
The trio settled into the living room, Lin excusing herself to bend off her armor. After a few minutes, Lin appeared again to usher Kuvira to the spare bedroom, "You can sleep here." She observed the space that was reserved for guests, it was a simple bedroom: a bed, a dresser and a small closet. Suddenly feeling very embarrassed at the unwelcome state of the room, she felt the need to apologize to Kuvira, "I know it's not much kid…" Su glared at Lin for using the word kid again, but thankfully Kuvira didn't catch it, nor seemed to mind it.
"Okay." The child bowed deeply at the waist, "Thank you Chief Beifong," before retreating to the room she had been shown.
The pair was finally left alone when Suyin spoke up, "That," she pointed at Lin, "has got to stop."
"What?"
"She called you Chief Beifong again, and you haven't stopped it yet!"
"Mom called me Chief…"
"Let her call you something else Lin, please. For both of our sakes." Su pinched the bridge of her nose, indicating her frustration.
The two sat in silence, occasionally exchanging a glare, until a tired looking child, dressed only in striped pajamas emerged from the bedroom, carrying only a plush badgermole.
Su looked the girl once over and stood, lightly hugging the little one and patting her back slightly. "Vira, honey, it's late, you should sleep."
"I want to but I can't." She rubbed her eyes for emphasis.
Su glanced over her shoulder, pleading with her eyes to her sister to intervene or at least help relax the child into her new surroundings. Lin sighed, and watched as Su started to walk the child to the room again. She patted the girls shoulder as they pushed open the guest door. This is going to be harder than I thought.
"She's all set up in the other bedroom. Finally got her to sleep with this storm. She's afraid of them." Su explained more about the girl while she slept.
"That's good to know. Do you have any… other information about her? How did she end up with you?"
"You're doing that thing again, Lin." Her eyes conveyed her amusement, as well as a little annoyance.
"What, is this another thing?" She suddenly became very defensive, Su had been jabbing at her mannerisms all night.
"You're treating this like another case."
"Does everything I do bother you? And how else should I treat it?" She raised her arms in defeat.
"You're insufferable. And you treat it like a mother, Lin."
"I wouldn't know what 'like a mother' means."
"You damn well know what it means- think of everything you didn't like about mom and try to fix it. Make her life better than yours."
The words struck the usually stoic officer. Like a mother. How would she know? Mom always favored her. She never had to deal with all the fighting- every single thing I did wasn't good enough. Or right.
Su noticed she was getting lost in her thoughts. Lin had a habit of doing this, even when they were kids. She'd start to spiral in her own mind, blaming herself for any and everything: any oversight, accident or situation that could have possibly gone better. Even though the Chief had a tough exterior, she secretly had a very sensitive side – often electing to repress the feelings in favor of appearing stable – even if she was the furthest from okay. She hadn't been okay in years.
"The girl's been through hell... Her parents were very poor. Used to try and sell her to have food to eat, then when she couldn't bring in enough money they'd beat her." Lin thought silently to herself, is that how she got all those cuts on her arms? Su continued, "Finally they grew tired of the burden and thankfully set her loose. They just left without telling her."
The sideways glance would have silenced most people: it was a move Suyin had perfected, but it did nothing to deter Lin's inquiries. "How'd you get her?"
"Guards picked her up trying to steal from the cabbage guy."
"Oh."
The two sat in silence for a few minutes, Lin processing all the new surfacing questions, but one stood out prominently in her mind, "Do you think she'll be okay?"
"I don't know. But that's why I wanted her to live here with you."
A new puzzled look crept onto the Chief's face, "Why's that…?"
The matriarch waved her hand, as if stating the obvious, "I think you'll realize you need each other in the future."
Lin finally smiled before responding, "You know, I'll never understand your mystic crap."
Su giggled. "I know. But just trust me on this, please?"
"Alright… Uh… Where do you want to sleep since Kuvira took the spare bedroom?"
"The couch is more than enough, thank you though." And the Chief left to perform her own night time ritual.
Sleep is something the Chief never really got enough of in any sense of the definition, even when she had the rare chance to attempt to get a full night's sleep. There was always so much noise, not that people could help their midnight urges or their deafening snoring that shook the walls and the occupants within.
This night was no different, especially with two other souls supposedly sleeping in her usually quiet space. The Chief felt a slight disturbance in the apartment, and rested her bare foot onto the floor to survey her surroundings: a steady and long heartbeat that had to belong to her sister continued to draw long and even breaths, and a quickening heartbeat belonging to the tiny footsteps approaching her door. Lin was groggy and knew there was no danger. She chose to stay still, observing what Kuvira would do next.
The Chief's wooden door creaked open, but the child didn't dare enter the room. She continued to watch the Chief sleep until a loud BOOM from outside shook the furniture and illuminated all that the windows would allow. The girl scurried across the short distance to the bed, but still didn't have the guts to disturb the older woman by crawling in.
She felt Kuvira staring at her at the edge of the bed, and finally groggily asked, "Are you going to stand there staring at me all night kid, or are you going to get in here?" Lin patted the bed for emphasis.
Encouraged by the motion, the girl quickly huddled into the cold covers. Lin rolled her eyes and turned to her side, now facing the girl, in an attempt to get comfortable again. Kuvira twitched, and finally settled into bed with her guardian and her badgermole, Xin. The sleep-deprived chief breathed out slowly, the heaviness in her chest feeling a little lighter. She didn't have time to think about it though before drifting back to sleep.
Su awoke at another particularly loud bang that echoed outside. She couldn't fall back asleep, so she decided to check on Kuvira, who was no doubt not faring well with the storm. Slowly pushing open the guest bedroom door, she looked in to see no one in the bed. The matriarch started to panic, fearing Kuvira had run away or worse. Su rushed to her sister's room to report that the child was missing, but what greeted her instead was a sight she could never forget. In the tangle of sheets laid two people: her sister, unsurprisingly, and the missing child, clenching her stuffed badgermole. The adrenaline was replaced with pure happiness at seeing the Lin having her arm draped around the child, unconsciously snuggled up to the girl she'd been so uneasy about having around. Kuvira seemed to be sound asleep, judging by how her mouth hung open.
That's a start, Chief, that's a start...
AN2: Daww, I had this little idea planned for a while, but the last part doesn't mean everything will be sunshine and rainbows! It's a start though, as Su says. Again, R&R, let me know what y'all think. Cheers. -HMB