Thanks for your reviews! This chapter takes place the evening after the previous chapter. Without any further adieu,

Chapter 3


That night, after dinner, Mako helps his dad with the dishes. Father and son stand side by side in the kitchen. To reach the drying rack, the boy balances on a small wooden stool that raises him just high enough that his head is level with his father's broad shoulders. The boy's thin, spindly figure is nothing like his father's solid earthbender's form. However, in the dimly lit kitchen, Mako's black hair cannot be distinguished from his father's short-cropped brown locks. Their hair even misbehave in the same way, with the same errant tufts that flip up above their foreheads. The dishes clatter softly in the soapy water as Mako waits for his father to pass him something to dry. Through the doorway behind them, yelps and scattered thumps echo from the sitting room. The Bath Chase had begun.

Bolin never goes quietly to his nightly bath. Even as a baby, just barely learned to crawl, he would hide as soon as he heard the water running. When he learned to walk, he almost immediately picked up running as well, which made him a lot harder to catch. For a while, both parents were needed to catch their younger son, and they sometimes recruited their older son to help. There were more than a few wobbly chairs and scattered scorch marks on the walls.

With time, age, and, Mako hopes, maturity, his little brother had become less determined in his nightly escape attempts. He also had gotten (slightly) more considerate of the furniture, which made the nightly chases (slightly) more sedate. It remained as a nightly ritual with only two participants now, conducted by mother and son while father and son washed the dishes. Mako could only pray that someday Bolin would grow out of them entirely.

Mako hears an unusually loud thump, followed almost immediately by a crash. Father and son cringe in unison in the sudden, brief silence that follows. Then twin peals of laughter ring out from the other room. Bolin's laugh is a whooping shriek of joy while their mother's laugh is high and bright, like the flicker of lamplight in winter.

There is another thump, and their mother shouts in triumph as Bolin's startled yelp dissolves into giggles. She must have finally managed to corner Bolin, and, with some judicious tickling, was dragging him away for his bath. Bolin's protests and shrieks of laughter cut off with a splash. Mako sighs and shakes his head.

Usually Mako takes advantage of Bolin's distraction to pepper his father with questions about metalbending and criminal investigations and what it is like to work for Chief Bei Fong and where the team had hidden Lieutenant Anbu's helmet. His father looks forward to their nightly conversations, especially given his son's typical reserve. That night, however, Mako is quiet.

In the absence of questions, his father tells stories about his day, trying to test the limits of his son's reticence. He has gone through three tales already, without a word from the boy. The last had been a repeat of yesterday's, which normally Mako would have protested furiously. The father launches into another story, this one about how their airship had accidentally climbed too high over the city and crashed into the moon.

"Everything was white and cold, like one of the poles. Did you know the moon is made of ice? That's why it shines." The father finishes rinsing off a plate and hands it to his son, who dutifully wipes it down, still not looking up.

The man shrugs to himself, and continues, "We got off the ship to explore, but before we got three steps, an angry man in blue came out of nowhere, waving a boomerang in one hand." He passes a bowl down to his son, who dries that too and places it in the dish rack.

"Anyway, the crazy man tossed the boomerang at Lieutenant Anbu, who ducked out of the way and demanded to know who the crazy man was. The crazy man shouted something about the Moon Water Tribe and protecting a princess.

"Well, we were going to ask him about the princess, but just then there was a terrible clanging, and Lieutenant Anbu fell right over. Turns out we'd all forgotten that -"

"Dad?"

The man stops, and looks down at his son. "What is it, Mako?"

"Is it true that firebenders can't be cops?"

Mako still hasn't looked up. He continues, "I know I can't be one of the elites, Dad. I'm not an earthbender like you."

The father looks away, seemingly engrossed by the soapsuds in the sink. His next words come out quiet and slow. "There are a few firebenders who work in the district offices. But they don't use their bending, and they don't go out on patrol."

Mako hunches over. "I don't want some boring job at a desk. I want to use my bending to help people."

"There are some jobs that use firebending. The foundries and power plants can always use more firebenders, and the most famous chefs are all firebenders." Mako snorts with the derision only a child can master.

"His father tries another tack. "Most benders don't do jobs that require their bending. You can find a job that lets you help people that way."

Mako finally does look up then, his face filled with hope. "Then can't I be a regular cop on the street, and just not use my bending?"

His father opens his mouth, but then found he didn't know what to say. "Mako...Officers on patrol..." He stops, and tries again.

"When a man is surprised or suddenly put in danger, their first instinct is always to lash out. For benders, this means they'll bend at whatever is threatening them.

"That's always dangerous to non-benders, but earthbending and waterbending are easier to control. Police on the street never know if they're going to run into a crime in progress, and a surprised bender can cause a lot of damage."

Mako frowns, clearly thinking things through. "But there are waterbending cops. Even regular earthbending cops."

"And they're very carefully trained. But accidents still happen. And if an earthbender stops bending a boulder, it falls down. If a waterbender stops bending, the water stops being dangerous. But not fire. Fire keeps burning. One careless moment, and even a weak firebender could set someone on fire. The police can't afford that. The city can't afford it."

Mako clenches his fists. "That's not fair. It's not firebenders' fault that fire burns things. It's fire!"

"Some things aren't fair." Mako's father is quiet, but Mako can hear the rumbling below the words, hard as metal and as unyielding as stone. "Not even in this city, which was founded to be fair to everyone."

A soft voice drifts from the doorway. "But don't let that stop you." His mother's slim, familiar form is outlined by the light streaming in from the living room. Her gold eyes gleam in the dim light.

She walks into the kitchen. A few strands of fine black hair have escaped their careful ties and hang loose in front of her face, the only sign of the earlier chase. She is wearing a green dress, embroidered with fire lilies, and the skirt flares out around her ankles. She leans down and pulls Mako in close for a hug, and he releases a breath he hadn't realized he was holding.

"If you want to use your bending to help people, you will find a way. If something isn't fair, change it!"

Mako's father grimaces at his wife over Mako's head, where his son can't see. The world doesn't work that way, not that she would ever admit it. She smiles back at him, as their son buries his face in her dress. She would never stop believing otherwise.

Their son pulls away, and she lets him go. His eyes glisten in the light - too bright to be entirely dry, but no tears escape. His parents wisely do not notice. She tousles his hair, and rests one hand gently on her husband's shoulder before turning away.

"You still have dishes to finish," she says as she exits back through the doorway. "And Bolin is probably almost done with his bath by now." With that, she's gone.

Father and son look at each other. The father grins.

"So...want to bet on what they broke this time?"


A/N: Boomerang *always* comes back. Even when it's an imaginary boomerang in a tall tale told by a metalbender to his firebender son. Though I can definitely imagine the water tribes having a legend about their lost sister tribe on the Moon.

I thought about making Mako and Bolin's mother the metalbender officer of the story, since the red scarf pretty much screams that, in canon, their dad was the one with Fire Nation heritage. But the world already has too many awesome metalbending women. Also, it would have involved substantial rewriting and going back to edit chapter 1 again. And I have delayed enough!

Speaking of which, I'm sorry it's been so long since the last chapter. There will likely continue to be long waits between chapters, but since I don't plan on having any cliffhangers in this series, I hope no one minds too much. Part of the delay this time was because I had originally planned for Mako and Bolin's father to be a single parent, but then canon revealed otherwise. I also don't like how this chapter came out and spent a lot of time trying to make it more interesting. I'd appreciate feedback on whether that worked (or not)!