"You did that on purpose, didn't you?" Lin frowned as she watched Bolin rush to the restroom the second they entered the police station.
"Why in Kyoshi's name would I do that?" Toph huffed.
"Don't try to act innocent. You did this kind of crap to Aunt Katara all the time, Mother."
"Yeah, that was pretty funny." Toph chuckled, "But if you remember the stories correctly, I only gave the cloud kids sweets right before Sugar Queen came to take them home, leaving her to deal with all the fun stuff while I was safely out of harms way."she sighed happy, "Good times." Then her expression turned sour, "But then you came along and the moment of Katara's retribution was at hand."
"Sorry to be such a burden." Lin grumbled, "But none of that proves that you didn't mean for this to happen."
"Kid, there's a major hole in your theory, I was with you the whole day." Her mother pointed out, "Why would I give the boy something that would give him a kick if I planned to stay in the strike zone?"
"You just wanted to stick around and watch me go insane."
"I've never watched you do anything, Pup."
"Again with the blind jokes, Mom?" It was getting pretty old.
"Aw, come on. Where's that girl I used to have so much fun with?"
"She grew up." Lin sneered at the older woman one more time before the little boy came running back.
"Hey, can we play s'more now?" Bolin grabbed her hand and asked with a innocent grin. Out of the corner of her eye Lin caught some officers staring at her, mouths agape. Apparently they thought that she was dropping the kid off at an orphanage today, but here he was...asking their hardass chief to play with him. Instinct told her to put the fear of Kyoshi into them, but frankly, she was too tired. Bolin had been literally running in circles all day. He'd asked a thousand questions, some of them being the most pointless questions Lin ever heard in her life. When Mako hadn't been found in any of the usual hiding places he started to cry. He cheered up when they decided to show his picture at some of the local stores, threw a fit when the shop keeper called Mako a street spider-rat...and that was all before supper. Now, more than ever, Lin was sure that it was easier to deal with triads than children.
"Hey kid why don't you go play with the guy behind the counter for awhile?" Her mother suggested, leaving Lin to wonder what provoked this rare act of mercy from the lunatic.
"You're a real natural, Kid." Toph snickered as she closed Lin's office door behind her.
"Shut up, mom." Lin moaned. It only made her laugh more.
"You know what you need?"
"A stiff drink."
"Exactly." Toph took a bottle and two glasses out of the cabinet, "Here, I dropped this stuff off while I was waiting for you this morning. Does your old mom know you or what?" Her only answer was the sound of liquid pouring into glass, followed quickly by the sound of someone chugging it down like a boozer. "Cheers." She toasted with her empty glass before taking the bottle and pouring herself a gulp.
"That boy." Lin shook her head, snatching the bottle for her second round and sitting on one of the settees.
"You know what," Toph lounged in the one opposite of Lin and kicked her feet up, "You remind me a lot of myself at your age."
"You were a 'real natural' too, I know."
"Yeah, you'd do something to irritate me and I'd think to myself, 'what the hell am I gonna do with this kid?!'." That earned a small smirk from her daughter, "But then you'd go and do something cute, and suddenly it was all worth it." Lin knew where this was going, it was story time, "I remember when Penga had Lee. Sitting right outside in the hallway, you were five and bored out of your mind, and you could kinda hear what was going on in there, so naturally you were driving me up the wall. I barely made it out of there without tearing my hair out. One week later they came to visit us, Lee's dad was helping Penga up the stairs and you shout, 'Aunt Penga! You said he was never going to touch you again!'." Lin choked on her drink, "I had the exact same reaction. That one sentence made me practically forget all the hours of hell you put me through. You shoulda felt their heartbeats...priceless." Toph cackled while Lin stared at her in disbelief.
"No, I didn't do that."
"Yes you did." and her daughter had no choice but believe her. She only exaggerated when she had an audience, "You were a cute kid, my little badgermole pup. Hey! Did I ever tell you about the first time I called you that. "
"Yes, Mom." But as usual, when Toph wanted to tell a story, you were going to hear it even if you'd heard it a thousand times before. But Lin didn't mind, she'd never admit it, but she liked her mother's stories.
"We were visiting Airhead Island and I was acting... like myself and your dad throws his hands in the air and yells, 'I married a talking badgermole!'", she threw her hands in the air for dramatic effect, Lin chuckled at the sight, "Junior, being the gullible little git he was, walks up to me and says, 'Are you really a badgermole, Aunt Toph', And I couldn't resist, I told him an incredible story all about the avatar going into the mountain and meeting the badgermoles. 'Eventually he came across the runt of the litter and then to his amazement he heard..."
"What are you doing here, Twinkletoes?" Lin said at the same time.
"Well, after the avatar cheated to win a fight with the runt, he and the talking badgermole were captured by a greedy fighter who wanted to sell them for gold. But the badgermole, in her mercy,"
"In all her rebelliousness." She cut in.
"Ahem. In all her mercy, saved the avatar from the fighter and his minions single-handedly. In return the avatar shaved off most of the badgermoles fur, taught her how to walk on her hind legs and gave her a name."
"Toph. 'Cause it sounds like "Tough", and that's just what she was."
"Then the badgermole found herself a mate and they had a little pup named Lin. The end. He believed every word of it. It was hilarious, but not as good as the evil Melon Lord."
"Who could take over your body if you swallowed a melon seed. I remember."
"I told that to every one of you and every one of you refused to eat melon for at least a month, except Bumi, Katara couldn't let him eat melon for a month. You, well you wouldn't even look at the stuff for a year."
"I lived with the previous Melon Lord, remember? I wasn't taking any chances."
"But I had some real fun with Junior. Told him that story while I was eating a piece of melon. Started to hack and cough and he says, 'Aunt Toph, are you alright?'. I put on an evil smirk and whisper, 'No, not Toph...I. AM. MELON LORD!Mwahahaha'. I never felt that boy run so fast in all his life."
"Coward." Lin went to pour herself another round.
"Nope." Toph took the glass before any liquid could hit it, "You have to work tomorrow, and you have a boy to look after."
"For a minute I forgot about him." she sighed, not something she did every often, "What am I going to do with him?"
"Orphanage?"
"Two. The 'Refuge for Abandoned Children'."
"The kid's already half-starved." Toph reasoned, "That place will finish the job."
"That's what I said. And the 'Home for Misguided Children'."
"He wouldn't last a day." She got up from her seat and moved over towards Lin, "Sounds like you're caught between a rock and a hard place. Luckily-"
"I'm an earthbender, so moving the rock isn't a problem." The Chief recited the line from her childhood.
"That's right." Toph leaned in, giving her daughter a kiss on the forehead and ruffling her hair, "You'll think of something. You always do. G'night, little badgermole."
"Goodnight, Mom." She sat there rubbing her temples for awhile before a rookie knocked on the door, "Come in."
"Uh... Chief?"
"What is it?" She barked.
"Bolin's getting tired, where should we set him up for the night?"
"I'll take care of him." She got up and went to the front desk.
"Bed time, kid."
"But I'm not, aaaaawaaaaawh, sleepy." The fact that he was rubbing his eyes made Lin think otherwise.
"Sure you're not. Come on."
"Carry me." He pleaded, lifting his little hands in the air. Lin looked right, then left. Sure enough, every person in the damn place was watching, waiting to see what she'd do. She awkwardly picked him up and held him at arms length. He made a motion that she took to mean that he wanted to be held closer.
"Happy now?" She scowled as he cuddled her. Over to the right, one of her men fell out of his chair. 'Serves him right'. Lin walked out of the room as fast as she could while keeping her dignity intact.
"Uh huh." He sighed happily, unaware of her sarcasm. It wasn't long before he was back in the cell, being dumped on the bed. He landed a little harder than she intended, but luckily he just giggled as he bounced off the cot, "Sing me a lullaby."
"I don't sing."
"Pretty pleeeaase?" He looked at her with those big eyes. She pulled the blanket from underneath him and threw it over his head.
"Not gonna work, kid."
"How 'bout a story?" Bolin compromised as he laid down.
"Don't know any."
"Yes you do."
"You're not going to sleep until you hear something, are you? Fine." She searched her memory for a children's tale, but only two things came to mind, "A Long time ago there was an avatar named Aang who was traveling the world. One day he had to pass through the mountains near Goaling, where he came across a family of badgermoles. The pup, he noticed, was very small and appeared to be very weak. But when he tried to walk over to the runt he was earthbended into the cave wall and to his amazement he heard a voice say to him 'what are you doing here, Twinkletoes'." Well it was either this, or the Evil Melon Lord.