Kya heard rather than saw Lin come home.
She'd quickly learned not to take these times personally, the evenings when all she got was a gruff hello instead of arms snaking around her waist.
Sometimes Lin just needed a cooling-down period, space to transform from work-Lin to home-Lin.
She heard the shower turn on-and run for longer than usual. Showers for Lin were brisk, efficient affairs.
Kya had poured two glasses of wine and set dinner on the table by the time Lin appeared in the kitchen.
Her hair was wet, a darker gunmetal than usual, shoved carelessly back from her face.
She was in a clean white-tank and loose-fitting pants.
She was obviously favoring her left leg and making every attempt to hide it.
"Why are you limping?"
Lin sat down, took the glass of wine Kya was offering before answering.
"Raid on a triad-run sweat shop." A slow sip of the burgundy liquid. "Someone tipped them off." Another, deeper swallow. "They set fire to the place before we could move in."
She finished the glass.
"We couldn't see through the smoke. So I had a look." She motioned dismissively down at her feet. "There was glass."
"Let me see."
"I got it all." But even as she said it, Lin was propping her foot onto her knee, submitting it for Kya's inspection.
When Kya disappeared into the bedroom, Lin examined again the handful of shallow cuts along the bottom of her foot. Scratches almost-nothing really, she thought-though that nothing still stung with each step.
Kya returned and unrolled a leather bundle onto the table. It was full of small knives, needles, dried herbs-a healer's tools.
Kya poured a bowl of water before selecting what Lin frankly thought was an unnecessarily large needle and settling in the floor in front of her.
Lin's suspicions were confirmed as Kya began to prod the needle into the arch of her foot-and kept digging, until finally she said, "There you are."
Kya brandished the tiny sliver of green glass on the end of the needle like a trophy. She deposited it carefully into Lin's palm before a sweep of her hand sent a thin tendril of water from the bowl to settle briefly around Lin's foot.
Lin shivered-the water was shockingly cold where it met skin, burning where it crept beneath.
"Better by tomorrow,"Kya promised.
It was feeling better already.
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Lin focused on the dish set out in front of her. Dinner, obviously-but in exactly what form Lin would be hard pressed to say.
It was soup-ish.
Kya's new-found enthusiasm for cooking-for cooking for her-was really very sweet. Sweet, but often inedible.
It reminded her of the handful of times that Toph had made an effort, guilted no doubt into "family meal time" by Aunt Katara. The results had often had a similar . . . consistency.
She spooned a bite into her mouth, chewed and swallowed-forced it to stay down.
She wondered if Kya also had something in that bundle for indigestion.
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Kya knew Lin wasn't asleep. The fingers absently winding and unwinding in her hair hadn't stopped since they'd gone to bed almost an hour ago.
"What else happened today?"
The thumb of Lin's free hand brushed along the underside of Kya's breast-an obvious tactic, creating a distraction. She let Lin close the scant space between their bodies, but didn't respond in the usual way to the fabric of Lin's pajamas brushing against her bare back, to legs tangling with hers.
"You don't want to hear the rest," Lin warned.
"Need to." Kya drew Lin's hand at her ribs into hers, tucked them beneath her chin.
"The boss bolted the doors from the outside before he started the fire-didn't want to leave any evidence." The people, inside.
"But you were there."
She felt Lin nod. There-in the middle of a burning building. She almost wanted to laugh at the obvious metaphor. She kissed the hand she was holding instead.
"A dozen in the hospital from smoke insulation, a few serious burns," Lin continued. "All refuges out of Ba Sing Se."
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"What's the name of that street-vendor you like?" Kya asks later. "The one who sells those seaweed chips?"
"Yin?"
"How about dinner from Yin's tomorrow?"